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.

Nicolas Altstaedt was Artist in Residence 19/20 at the SWR Symphonie Orchestra under Teodor Currentzis and Artist in Fokus at Alte Oper Frankfurt. Other recent highlights include a tour with B’Rock and René Jacobs, debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra Washington and Ed Gardner, ONF Paris with Cristian Macelaru and the NHK and Yomiuri Symphony at Suntory Hall.

He has debuted in recital at BOZAR Brussels, Carnegie Hall, Park Avenue Armory, TCE Paris and Koerner Hall, Toronto. During the 17/18 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. Season 21/22 includes debuts with the London and Munich Philharmonic, Bayrische Rundfunk, RAI Torino, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Spain and tours with l’Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and Philippe Herreweghe as well as the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and Dmitri Slobodeniouk and reinvitation to the Rotterdam Philharmonic and NHK Symphony Orchestra.

As a conductor, he works closely with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and conducted in recent seasons the SWR, OPRF Paris, OSI Lugano, Aurora and Munich chamber orchestras. 

Awarded the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2010, he gave a critically praised performance of the Schumann Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel at the Lucerne Festival.  Since then, he has performed worldwide with orchestras such as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, all BBC Orchestras, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras with conductors including Sir Roger Norrington, Francois Xavier Roth, Lahav Shani, Sir Neville Marriner, Robin Ticciati, Cristian Macelaru, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrew Manze, Kazuki Yamada, Thomas Dausgaard, Thomas Hengelbrock as well as with orchestras of historical performance practice such as “Il Giardino Armonico” under Giovanni Antonini, Andrea Marcon and Jonathan Cohen.

In 2012, Nicolas was chosen by Gidon Kremer to succeed him as the new artistic director of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival and in 2014 by Ádám Fischer to become the new Artistic Director of the Haydn Philharmonie whom he regularly performs with at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Esterházy Festival and recently on tour in both China and Japan. Nicolas is Artistic Director of the Pfingstfestspiele Ittingen 2019 and 2023.

As a chamber musician, Nicolas partners include Janine Jansen, Vilde Frang, Christian Tetzlaff, Pekka Kuusisto, Tabea Zimmermann, Lawrence Power, Antoine Tamestit, Martin Fröst, Alexander Lonquich, Jonathan Cohen, Jean Rondeau and the Quatuor Ébène. He performs at both Salzburg Mozart and Summer Festival, Verbier, Utrecht, BBC Proms, Lucerne, Musikfest Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Rheingau. 

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. Sebastian Fagerlund, Helena Winkelman and Fazil Say have recently written concertos for Nicolas.

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 received the Beethovenring Bonn 2015 and Musikpreis der Stadt Duisburg 2018. Nicolas was a BBC New Generation Artist 2010-2012 and a recipient of the „Borletti Buitoni Trust Fellowship“ in 2009.