Called “Chicago’s first lady of the cello” by Timeout Chicago, Dutch cellist Katinka Kleijn appeared as soloist in the 2016 World Premiere of Dai Fujikura’s Cello Concerto at Lincoln Center, New York, where The New York Times described her as “a player of formidable expressive gifts.”
In demand as a soloist, she performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Penderecki’s Triple Cello Concerto among numerous appearances and in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Kai on the CSO’s MusicNOW series. She has collaborated in chamber music performances with musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Christoph Eschenbach and appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival and on the Symphony Center Presents series.
Known for her individual projects, Kleijn presented her solo show “oil-free blush” highlighting the carcinogenic properties of makeup, which included seven premieres, at the Chicago Humanities Festival. A collaboration with the Chicago-based performance art duo Industry of the Ordinary resulted in the highly-acclaimed and publicized work “Intelligence in the Human Machine” by Daniel Dehaan. Time magazine called it “a balancing act for Kleijn’s whole body,” where Kleijn performed a duet with her own brainwaves.
As a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) she has given many premieres, including the first American performance of Zona for solo cello and ensemble by Magnus Lindberg and Eternal Escape for solo cello by Dai Fujikura.
Kleijn has recorded for Naxos, Boston Records and Cedille. Her non-classical recordings include progressive rock band District 97, the ambient-folk duo Relax Your Ears, singer-songwriter David Sylvian and guitarist Bill MacKay.
