Nicolas Altstaedt
One of Boris Pergamenschikow’s last students in Berlin, Nicolas Alstaedt has won a number of awards in recent years including the 2004 Landgrave of Hesse Prize of the Kronberg Academy, first prize at the 2005 German Music Competition, the 2005 International Domnick Cello Competition, Stuttgart and the 2006 Adam International Cello Competition, New Zealand. In 2009 he was awarded a Borletti Buitoni Fellowship. Since his début performance with the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich under Sir Neville Marriner in 2007 Nicolas Altstaedt has performed all over the world with the symphony orchestras of Berlin, Stuttgart, Bamberg, Helsinki, Melbourne, New Zealand, the Simon Bolivar Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, and the Tapiola Sinfonietta, under several distinguished conductors including Sir Roger Norrington, Mario Venzago and Adam Fischer. He regularly collaborates with Gidon Kremer, Daniel Hope, Alexander Lonquich, Jörg Widmann, the Quatuor Ebene and has performed at the festivals of Lockenhaus, Jerusalem and Salzburg (opening concert, 2008). His two most recent recordings of the cello concertos of Haydn, Schumann, Tchaikovsky and Gulda have been highly acclaimed worldwide. A member of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Nicolas Alstaedt plays a cello by Nicolas Lupot (Paris, 1824) on loan to him by the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.
Under the chairmanship of Michael Haefliger, director of the Lucerne Festival, Nicolas Altstaedt was awarded unanimously with the prestigious “Credit Suisse Young Artist 2010” on December 11th 2009 at the Vienna Musikverein. Nicolas Altstaedt will be given the opportunity to play with the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel at the LUCERNE FESTIVAL on September 17th 2010. The Credit Suisse Young Artist Award is an initiative by the Lucerne Festival, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Muskfreunde Wien and the Credit Suisse Foundation. With this honourable distinction the Credit Suisse Foundation awards young outstanding artists.
