German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt is celebrated internationally as an exceptionally versatile musician, whether performing effortlessly on baroque cello, virtuosically interpreting the works of the classical and romantic repertoires or humanizing the pulse of contemporary music. He is also an imaginative programmer and conductor much in demand by well-known festivals and orchestras, and is frequently invited to serve as artistic director or resident musician.
Mr. Altstaedt was awarded the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2010 and later appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel at the Lucerne Festival. Since then he has performed worldwide with orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra for the opening of the new Elbphilharmonie, radio orchestras from Hannover, Leipzig and Vienna, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra and many others. He has worked with conductors including Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Neville Marriner, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Andrew Marcon
In 2012, Nicolas was chosen by Gidon Kremer to become his successor as the artistic director of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival while in 2014 Ádám Fischer picked him to follow in his footsteps as artistic director of the Haydn Philharmonie.
In recital, Mr. Altstaedt performs alone or with chamber music partners such as the pianists Fazil Say, Alexander Lonquich and Aleksandar Madžar at the most prestigious halls and festivals worldwide, regularly joining artists such as Janine Jansen, Vilde Frang, Pekka Kuusisto, Tabea Zimmermann, Christian Tetzlaff, Leif Ove Andsnes, Andreas Ottensamer, Jörg Widmann, Lawrence Power, Jonathan Cohen and the Quatuor Ébène at festivals in Salzburg, Verbier, at the BBC Proms, in Lucerne, Gstaad, Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau, Utrecht and Stavanger.
Mr. Altstaedt occassionally premieres new musical works and has performed music from composers such as Thomas Ades, Jörg Widmann, Matthias Pintscher, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly and Fazil Say.
In 2017 his recording of CPE Bach Concertos with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen, with whom he appeared at Festival Maribor in 2016, received the prestigious BBC Music Magazine Concerto Award.
Among his latest achievements are the Finnish premiere of a new cello concerto by Esa-Pekka Salonen under the baton of the composer. During the 2017/2018 season he was Artist in Residence at the Concertgebouw, serving the same role at the NDR Elbphilharmonie Hamburg the following season.
Nicolas Altstaedt has been an integral part of Festival Maribor since 2016.
