German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt is one of the most sought after and versatile artists today. As a soloist, conductor and artistic director, he performs repertoire spanning from early music to the contemporary, playing on both period and modern instruments.

This season he is Artist in Residence at the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and in 2019/20 he will be Artist in Focus at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and Artist in Residence at the SWR Symphonieorchester. He will tour with the SWR Symphonieorchester and Teodor Currentzis as well as with B’Rock and René Jacobs, the European Union Youth Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko, and debuts with Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra and Ed Gardner, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with Robin Ticciati, and Il Giardino Armonico with Giovanni Antonini.

As a cellist he has performed with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Symphoniker, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Roger Norrington, Lahav Shani, Christoph Eschenbach and François-Xavier Roth. Recent highlights include concerto debuts with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and recital debuts at BOZAR Brussels, Carnegie Hall, Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, and Koerner Hall Toronto, as well as a tour through Australia. 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.

Nicolas has been following Ádám Fischer as the chief conductor of the Haydn-Philharmonie and debuted this season as a conductor with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Zurich, Aurora, Scottish Chamber Orchestras and the Academy of Ancient Music, and will conduct the Orquesta Nacional de España next season.

Gidon Kremer had chosen Nicolas to be his successor of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival. His close chamber music partners are Janine Jansen, Vilde Frang, Pekka Kuusisto, Quatuor Ébène, Jörg Widmann, Fazil Say, Jonathan Cohen and Jean Rondeau.