The German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt is one of the most versatile artists working today. His repertory as a soloist, conductor and artistic director reaches from early to contemporary music.
Concerts in the 2025/26 season have included performances with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra under Joana Mallwitz, with Thomas Dunford at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and with Jean Rondeau at the Dresden Music Festival.
He is a regular guest at the BBC Proms, the Bremen Music Festival, the Prague Spring International Music Festival and the festivals of Edinburgh, Lucerne, Salzburg and Verbier, and has performed with orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Tonhalle Orchestra, Zurich, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the NHK Symphony Orchestra, under conductors such as Teodor Currentzis, Gustavo Dudamel, Iván Fischer, Paavo Järvi, Lahav Shani, Robin Ticciati and Kazuki Yamada.
He has performed on period instruments with ensembles such as Il Giardino Armonico, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and B’Rock, and with Arcangelo under Jonathan Cohen.
His chamber music partners include Maxim Emelyanychev, Mao Fujita, Janine Jansen, Lawrence Power, Quatuor Ébène and the Belcea Quartet. Composers such as Jörg Widmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Thomas Larcher, Sebastian Fagerlund, Fazıl Say and Liza Lim have written works for him.
As a conductor he has close ties with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. Since 2025/26 he has been an artist in association with the Tapiola Sinfonietta.
Since 2012 he has been artistic director of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, and from 2014 to 2021 he conducted the Haydn Philharmonic.
His recordings have won many awards, including the BBC Music Magazine Award, the Gramophone Classical Music Award and the Edison Klassiek. In January 2026 he and Patricia Kopatchinskaja released the CD Bowed Spaces, featuring works including Márton Illés’s Cello Concerto Sírt-tér.
Nicolas Altstaedt is a recipient of the Credit Suisse Award, the Beethoven Ring Bonn and the Music Prize of the City of Duisburg.
