Christian Poltéra

Christian Poltéra was born in Zurich in 1977. He was a pupil of Nancy Chumachenco and Boris Pergamenschikow before studying with Heinrich Schiff in Salzburg and Vienna.

As a soloist he has given concerts with numerous renowned orchestras such as the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich, the Vienna, Bamberg, and Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestras, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of the broadcaster NDR, the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden/ Freiburg, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo and Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestras, the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI Torino, the Orquesta Nacional de España, and the Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome. He has thus worked with many distinguished conductors such as Vladimir Fedoseyev, Adam Fischer, Heinz Holliger, Heinrich Schiff, Leonard Slatkin, Mario Venzago, Armin Jordan, and David Zinman.

Recently, Poltéra played among others with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Riccardo Chailly and made his US debut as the soloist of the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall New York in May 2006.

In March 2008 he will interpret Beethoven’s “Tripel”-concert together with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Lars Vogt at the Lucerne Festival.

Chamber music projects have brought him together with Isabelle Faust, Leonidas Kavakos, Gidon Kremer, Janine Jansen, Julius Drake, Till Fellner, Lars Vogt, Leif Ove Andsnes as well as with the Artemis, Auryn and the Guarneri quartet. He works regularly with the pianists Kathryn Stott and Polina Leschenko. He is always a welcome guest at renowned festivals such as Salzburg, Berlin, Heimbach, Vienna, Lucerne, Zurich, Gstaad, Sion, Davos, Risør, Kuhmo, Lockenhaus and Perth and at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg.

His recordings on CD which include the cello concertos by Dvořák and Toch as well as various chamber music appear on the EMI, Chandos, Naxos, Pan Classics, Avanti Classics and Tacet labels. For the Swedish label BIS he recorded a three CD series with the cello concertos of Othmar Schoeck (published in May 2007), Frank Martin and Arthur Honegger, combined with seldom-heard chamber music works by these Swiss composers. These include, for example, the sonata for violin and cello by A. Honegger, performed together with Christian Tetzlaff.

Between 2004 and 2006, Poltéra was a member of the prestigious New Generation Artists scheme of the BBC Radio 3 in London. In 2004 he received the Borletti-Buitoni Award. By “Palais des Beaux Arts” Brussels he was appointed to take part in the renowned concert series “Rising Stars” 2006/07 together with the pianist Polina Leschenko. This series included performances at major European concert halls such as Vienna, Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Stockholm, Paris, Cologne, among others, and at Carnegie/Weill Hall, New York. These awards confirm the status of Poltéra being one of the leading cellists of his generation.

In the season 2007/08, Christian Poltéra will perform together with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Antoine Tamestit during two string trio tours throughout Europe.

Biographical information provided by artist's management.