Nicolas Altstaedt & Alexander Lonquich
Biography Nicolas Altstaedt & Alexander Lonquich
Nicolas Altstaedt
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.
This season he is Artist in Residence at the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra , where he performs with Krzysztof Urbánski, Hannu Lintu and Christoph Eschenbach on tour. Other upcoming highlights include a tour at major European venues with the SWR Orchestra and Teodor Currentzis, a tour with B’Rock and René Jacobs, Debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra Washington and Ed Gardner, the NHK and Yomiuri Symphony at Suntory Hall , European Youth Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko, Orchestre National de France with Emmanuel Krivine, Il Giardino Armonico at Grafenegg Festival, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Les Violons du Roy, Netherland Philharmonic and Radio Philharmonic with Ben Gernon and Edo de Waart at Het Concertgebouw, Residentie Orkest and reinvitations to the DSO Berlin with Robin Ticciati, Gürzenich Orchestra and Karina Canellakis, Rotterdam Philharmonic, BBC Symphony at the Proms and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Recent highlights include concerto debuts with Detroit Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic and recital debuts at BOZAR Brussels, Carnegie Hall, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris and Koerner Hall, Toronto and a tour through Australia.
As a conductor, he will debut with the SWR Stuttgart, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Aurora, Zurich and Scottish Chamber Orchestras and l’Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. 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 also the Artist in Spotlight at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
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, Sir Andrew Davis, Lahav Shani, Sir Neville Marriner, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andrew Manze, Juraj Valcuha, Thomas Dausgaard, Giovanni Antonini and Andrea Marcon amongst others.
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 Adam 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 will be Artistic Director of the Pfingstfestspiele Ittingen 2019 and 2020.
As a chamber musician, Nicolas partners include with 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, Gstaad, Musikfest Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Rheingau. Nicolas regularly perfoms new music and has performed and worked with Thomas Ades, Jörg Widmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Thomas Larcher, Fazil Say and Sofia Gubaidulina. Sebastian Fagerlund, Anders Hillborg, Helena Winkelman and Fazil Say are writing concertos for him in the next seasons.
Nicolas’ recording of CPE Bach Concertos on Hyperion with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen received the BBC Music Magazine Concerto Award 2017. His latest recording – Four Cities – a recital programme of works by Say, Debussy, Shostakovich and Janacek with Fazil Say was released on Warner Classics to great acclaim and received the Edison Klassiek 2017. In 2018 Nicolas received the Musikpreis der Stadt Duisburg. Nicolas was a BBC New Generation Artist 2010-2012 and a recipient of the „Borletti Buitoni Trust Fellowship“ in 2009.
Alexander Lonquich
Born in Trier, Germany, Alexander Lonquich is recognized as one of the most important interpreters of his generation, as soloist, chamber musician and conductor. He currently performs worldwide, in Japan, United States, Australia as well as at the most important European music centres, regular guest of prestigious festivals, such as Salzburg Festival, Mozartwoche Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Kissinger Sommer, Lucerne Festival, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Lockenhaus, Cheltenham Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Beethovenfest in Bonn and Warsaw.
Alexander Lonquich’s performances in the double role of soloist & conductor are hailed by the international media and audiences: he regularly appears with Camerata Salzburg, Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Münchener Kammerorchester, hr Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Kammerorchester Basel, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai in Turin, Orchestra da Camera di Mantova.
Lonquich has been most successfully soloist of the Wiener Philharmoniker, Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Philharmonic Orchestra of La Scala Theatre in Milan, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, to name a few. He played under the baton of Claudio Abbado, Yuri Bashmet, Philippe Herreweghe, Heinz Holliger, Ton Koopman, Emmanuel Krivine, Mark Minkowski, Kurt Sanderling, Sándor Végh.
He is also profoundly committed to chamber music and regularly plays with partners such as Nicolas Altstaedt, Vilde Frang, Heinz Holliger, Sabine Meyer, Christian Tetzlaff, Carolin Widmann, Jörg Widmann, Tabea Zimmermann, the Artemis Quartet and many others.
Alexander Lonquich’s solo recordings for EMI, dedicated to Mozart, Schumann and Schubert, have received the highest critical acclaim and prizes ranging from the “Diapason d’Or” to the “Edison Prize”.
Various CDs have been released by ECM Records, among other music by Israeli composer Gideon Lewensohn, the French piano music CD “Plainte calme” (Fauré, Ravel, Messiaen), which received the highest recognition from the international press, piano solo works by Schumann (Kreisleriana) and Heinz Holliger (Partita), and recently a duo CD with the violinist Carolin Widmann entirely dedicated to Schubert.
In 2016, his new CD recording of Schumann’s piano concert pieces with Heinz Holliger and the WDR Sinfonieorchester was released by Audite Records.
Highlights of the past seasons were successful tours through Europe as soloist and conductor with the Camerata Salzburg, the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, as well as a cycle of Beethoven‘s 5 piano concertos with the Münchener Kammerorchester and his Residence in 2015/16 season at the NDR Sinfonieorchester in Hamburg.
Future highlights include a European tour with the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées (France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy) and concerts with the Haydn Philharmonie Eisenstadt, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester and the Münchener Kammerorchester.
