Jan Sekaci

Jan Sekaci was born in Oradea in 2001 and began studying the cello at the age of ten. In 2014, he continued his musical education for one year at the “Sigismund Toduță” National College of Music in Cluj-Napoca. The following year, he moved to Bucharest, where he studied at the National College of Arts “Dinu Lipatti” in the class of Professor Octavian Lup until 2020. From 2020 to 2025, he studied at the Barenboim–Said Academy in Berlin with Professor Frans Helmerson, and he is currently continuing his studies at the Berlin University of the Arts in the class of Professor Konstantin Heidrich.

Over the years, he has participated in numerous competitions in Romania, where his talent was recognized early on. His awards include the Grand Prize at the “Sigismund Toduță” Competition in Deva (2014), the Grand Prize at the National “Alexandru Moroșanu” Competition in Bucharest (2015), the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” Competition, the Grand Prize at the “George Georgescu” Competition, as well as First Prizes at the National Music Olympiads between 2015 and 2019.

His international successes include First Prize at the Klaipėda International Cello Festival and Competition (2017), First Prize at the International ProArt Competition in Ukraine (2017), and First Prize at the Johannes Brahms Competition in Austria (2021). At the same competition, he also received a special prize from conductor Yuki Miyagi, which led to a performance of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in Prague. More recently, he was awarded the “New Hope Grand Prix,” offering him the opportunity to perform with twelve Romanian philharmonic orchestras in the upcoming season, and he also won Third Prize at the Domenico Gabrielli Competition in Berlin in 2025.

He has taken part in masterclasses with artists such as Marin Cazacu, Răzvan Suma, Valentin Răduțiu, Denis Severin, Frans Helmerson, Jens Peter Maintz, Romain Garioud, Raphaël Pidoux, Antonio Meneses, Alisa Weilerstein, Miklós Perényi, Philippe Muller, David Geringas, András Schiff, and Daniel Barenboim.

In 2018, he was selected as an active participant in the Kronberg Academy masterclasses under Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, and again in 2024 under Philippe Muller. In the same year, he was one of six cellists chosen for the Verbier Festival Young Soloists Programme. He also attended the Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle of Gautier Capuçon at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris for three consecutive years.

Since 2025, he has been a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben, Live Music Now Berlin – Yehudi Menuhin, the Paul Hindemith Society Berlin, and the Gautier Capuçon Foundation. He performs on a cello built in 2018 by Urs W. Mächler, generously provided by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.