German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt is one of the most sought after and versatile artists today.
Nicolas Altstaedt performs regularly with the most renowned orchestras around the world, including the Wiener Philharmoniker and Symphoniker, Tonhalle-Orchestra Zürich, OPRF and ONF Paris, and all BBC orchestras with conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Roger Norrington, Lahav Shani, François-Xavier Roth, Robin Ticciati as well as with orchestras of historical performance practice such as ‘Il Giardino Armonico’ under Giovanni Antonini, Andrea Marcon and Jonathan Cohen.
Nicolas Altstaedt was Artist in Focus at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and Artist in Residence at the SWR Symphonieorchester with Teodor Currentzis in 2019/20. During the 2017/18 season, Nicolas gave the highly acclaimed Finnish Premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto under the baton of the composer at the Helsinki Festival and was ‘Artist in Spotlight’ at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. In 2012 Nicolas Altstaedt succeeded Gidon Kremer as artistic director of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, and in 2014 he succeeded Ádám Fischer in this position at the Haydn Philharmonic.
As a conductor, he works closely with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and conducted in recent seasons the SWR, OPRF Paris, Aurora and Münchener Kammerorchester orchestras. As a chamber musician, Nicolas’ regular partners include Janine Jansen, Vilde Frang, Pekka Kuusisto, Lawrence Power, Antoine Tamestit, Alexander Lonquich, Jean Rondeau and the Quatuor Ébène.
Joint appearances with composers such as Thomas Adès, Jörg Widmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Thomas Larcher, Fazil Say and Sofia Gubaidulina also consolidate his reputation as an outstanding interpreter of contemporary music.
He has received numerous prizes including the Beethovenring Bonn 2015 and Musikpreis der Stadt Duisburg 2018. His most recent recording for his Lockenhaus Festival garnered the BBC Music Magazine 2020 Chamber Award and Grammophone Award 2020. He received the BBC Music Magazine Concerto Award 2017 for his recording of CPE Bach Concertos on Hyperion with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen and the Edison Klassiek 2017 for his Recital Recording with Fazil Say on Warner Classics. Nicolas is a recipient of the Credit Suisse Award in 2010 and was a BBC New Generation Artist 2010-2012.
