Susanne Szambelan was born in New York in 1993. She grew up in Poznań, where she began learning piano aged five before later switching to the cello. At just  15, she made her début performing “Variations on a Rococo Theme” by Tchaikovsky with the Kaunas Symphony Orchestra in Lithuania. This was followed by solo performances throughout Europe, including with the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra and the  Orchestra of the Capital Royal City of Kraków “Sinfonietta Cracovia”.

Susanne Szambelan began studying music in 2012, when she joined the cello class of the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków. During this period, she recorded a solo album with pieces by Antonín Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana, directed by Robert Kabara and accompanied by the “Sinfonietta Cracovia”. The album was released under the DUX label in 2013. In an enthusiastic review published by Pizzicato, Remy Franck wrote: “Here, flawless intonation, impeccable grasp of the colour palette and dynamic, a nobility of tone and intimacy of expression are perfectly combined. It’s been a long time since I last heard such a gripping interpretation of the Dvořák concerto”. In his review, he described Szambelan as “a world-class cellist”.

In 2014, she moved to Berlin, where she began studying under Stephan Forck and later under Claudio Bohórquez at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler.

Her passion for chamber music led to collaborations with artists such as Boris Brovtsyn, Daniel Hope, Noah Bendix-Balgley, the Vogler Quartet and to frequent performances with the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic. From 2021–2024, she received a scholarship for the for chamber music of the  Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz. She has also performed at festivals such as  Krzyżowa-Music,  Zermatt Music Festival,  Plush, Paax Festival  and  Encuentro de Música  in Santander. Since 2024, she has been a member of the Lyatoshynsky Trio .

During the 2022/2023 season, she was a scholarship holder at the Kurt-Sanderling-Akademie of the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra. There, she was able to gain experience working with a professional symphony orchestra directed by conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach and Iván Fischer.

In 2021, at the invitation of Daniel Hope, Susanne Szambelan performed for Poland as part of the “Europe@Home” ARTE concert series. In 2023, she gave a solo recital at the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, which consisted exclusively of works by Polish composers.

In 2022, she recorded a second album, “dichter.liebe” in collaboration with the guitarist Jerzy Chwastyk, which included songs by Robert Schumann interpreted for cello and guitar. The music is accompanied by selected poems by Heinrich Heine, read by the German actor Hanns Zischler. The album was released on the Prospero Classical label and was nominated for the OPUS KLASSIK 2023 prize.

Projects such as “dichter.liebe” and “Kodály Reframed” (performed as a duet with the saxophonist Hayden Chisholm and as a trio with Max Baillie) reflect the versatility of the cellist and her constant search for new forms of expression.