Austrian cellist and viol player Bianca Riesner enjoys a varied career as both a modern and baroque musician. In addition to regular appearances in England, Italy, Germany and Switzerland, her busy concert life has taken her on tours throughout Europe, the US and South America, and to renowned festivals such as the Bach Festival Leipzig and the Boston Early Music Festival.

PERIOD Since 2022 she regularly joins Jordi Savall’s Le Concert des Nations for concerts and tours throughout Europe. She also works with groups like Concentus Musicus Wien, Orchester Wiener Akademie and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and is a founding member of the chamber music series Klang&Raum.
In 2016/17 she has been selected for the Monteverdi Apprentice Scheme. As part of the scheme she received personal coachings by Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the principals of the Monteverdi Orchestras and joined the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique in concerts and on tour.

MODERN After finishing her studies with Roel Dieltiens on the modern cello at the University of Arts in Zurich in 2009 she worked as a tutti player and principal cellist in various orchestras. She is a member of the Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg as well as an extra player at ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna and the Tonkünstler Orchestra and has joined Spira Mirabilis in their projects.

EDUCATION In 2014 her special interest in Historical Performance led her to start a one-year intensive Master studies programme on the baroque cello and the viola da gamba with Jonathan Manson at the Royal Academy of Music which she completed with distinction.
During her studies she played concerts as a continuo cellist and soloist with Maggie Faultless, Rachel Podger, Laurence Cummings and joined the RAM Baroque Orchestra in concerts directed by Masaaki Suzuki at the Bachfest Leipzig, Boston Early Music Festival and the Lincoln Center.

PRIZES She has been awarded the Startstipendium 2014 of the Austrian ministry of education and has received scholarships by the Fohn-Stiftung, Impulse Privatstiftung, Otto Ender-Stiftung and an entrance scholarship by the Royal Academy of Music.