This page needs JavaScript activated to work.

Antoine Tamestit

Viola
Co-Artistic Director, Viola Space Festival / Artist in Residence, Dresden Staatskapelle / LSO Artist Portrait, London Symphony Orchestra Portrait Artist, Cologne Philharmonie

  • Violist Antoine Tamestit is internationally recognized as a leading soloist, recitalist and chamber musician beloved for his unsurpassed technique and the much-vaunted beauty of his richly coloured tone. His broad repertoire ranges from Baroque to the present, and his strong commitment to contemporary music is reflected in numerous premieres of new works.

Read more
  • In the 21/22 season, Antoine Tamestit was able to showcase the breadth of his talents in residencies with the London Symphony Orchestra (Artist Portrait), Staatskapelle Dresden (Capell-Virtuos) and the Cologne Philharmonie (Porträtkünstler). In 22/23, he will be Artist-in-Residence at the Prague Spring Festival.


    In recent seasons, Antoine has performed with orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Bayerische Rundfunk, Orchestre de Paris, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Mahler Chamber Orchestra or the Akademie Für Alte Musik Berlin among many others. He performs regularly with major conductors including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi, Klaus Mäkelä, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Sir Antonio Pappano, Kirill Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle, Francois-Xavier Roth, and Christian Thielemann. 


    Antoine Tamestit was a founding member of Trio Zimmermann with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Christian Poltera. Together they have recorded a number of acclaimed CDs for BIS Records, including Bach’s Goldberg Variations in their own arrangement, and have played in Europe’s most famous concert halls and series. Other chamber music partners include Emmanuel Ax, Isabelle Faust, Martin Fröst, Leonidas Kavakos, Nikolai Lugansky, Yo-Yo Ma, Emmanuel Pahud, Francesco Piemontesi, Cédric Tiberghien, Yuja Wang, Jörg Widmann, Shai Wosner and the Ébène Quartet.


    Among the most important world premieres by Antoine Tamestit are Jörg Widmann’s Viola Concerto, Thierry Escaich’s La Nuit des Chants, Bruno Mantovani’s Concerto for Two Violas with Tabea Zimmermann, as well as Gérard Tamestit’s Sakura and Olga Neuwirth’s Remnants of Songs and Weariness Heals Wounds.


    Together with Nobuko Imai, Antoine Tamestit continues to be the co-artistic director of the Viola Space Festival in Japan for 10 years, focusing on the development of viola repertoire and a wide range of education programmes.


    Antoine records regularly with Harmonia Mundi as he continues to expand his vibrant scope of discography. Of the many of his acclaimed albums, Round Midnight with Quatuor Ebène was recently crowned with Chamber Award 2022 by the coveted Gramophone Award. His recent releases include Johannes Brahms’s Sonatas for Viola and Piano with Cédric Tiberghien and a Telemann album with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. His other most notable release was the Widmann Concerto, recorded with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding in February 2018. The recording was selected as Editor’s Choice in BBC Music Magazine and also won the Premier Award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards in 2019.


    Born in Paris, Tamestit studied with Jean Sulem, Jesse Levine, and with Tabea Zimmermann. He was the recipient of several prizes including first prize at the William Primrose Competition in 2001, and the ARD International Music Competition in 2004 as well as being awarded the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2008. In November 2022 he will receive the Paul-Hindemith-Preis of the City of Hanau.


    Antoine Tamestit plays on the very first viola made by Antonio Stradivarius in 1672, generously loaned by the Habisreutinger Foundation.

    2022/23 season / 535 words. Not to be altered without permission.

Performances

View more
Close
Loading performances...

Livestreams and Broadcasts

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France | February 2022
Berlioz : Harold in Italy, Op.16
Click to watch on Arte
(Available until Feburary 2025)

Concerto Repertoire

Berio
Voci


Berlioz
Harold in Italy


Britten
Double Concerto (violin & viola)
Lachrymae: Reflections on a Song of Dowland


Bruch
Double Concerto (clarinet & viola or violin & viola)
Romance

Thierry Escaich
La nuit des chants


Sofia Gubaidulina
Concerto for Viola and Orchestra


Hindemith
Der Schwanendreher
Kammermusik No. 5
Trauermusik


Hoffmeister
Viola Concerto


Betsy Jolas
Frauenleben


György Kurtág
Mouvement


Krzysztof Penderecki
Concerto


Bruno Mantovani
Double Concerto for 2 Violas and Orchestra

Martinů
Rhapsody-concerto

Mozart
Clarinet Concerto in A Major (for Viola)
Sinfonia Concertante

Olga Neuwirth
Remnants of Songs... an Amphigory for viola solo and orchestra

Schnittke
Viola Concerto
Monolog for viola and orchestra


Stamitz
Viola Concerto in D Major

Telemann
Viola Concerto

Walton
Viola Concerto

Weber
Andante e Rondo Ungarese

Jörg Widmann
Viola Concerto

Conductors

Douglas Boyd
Baldur Brönnimann
Sylvain Cambreling
Myung-Whun Chung
Thomas Dausgaard
Sir Andrew Davis
Peter Eötvös
Laurence Equilbey
Asher Fisch
Thierry Fischer
Fabien Gabel
Sir John Eliot Gardiner
Valery Gergiev
Hans Graf
Daniel Harding
Miguel Harth-Bedoya
Manfred Honeck
Jakub Hrůša
Paavo Jäarvi
Marek Janowski
Eivind Gullberg Jensen
Dmitri Kitajenko
Emmanuel Krivine
Louis Langrée
Susanna Mälkki
Jun Märkl
Jaime Martin
Nicholas McGegan
Marc Minkowski
Franz-Welser Möst
Riccardo Muti
Jonathan Nott
Sakari Oramo
Andrés Orozco-Estrada
Matthias Pintscher
Markus Poschner
Jérémie Rhorer
Pascal Rophé
François-Xavier Roth
Yutaka Sado
Tatsuya Shimono
Vassily Sinaisky
Tugan Sokhiev
Masaaki Suzuki
Robin Ticciati
Juraj Valčuha
Gilbert Varga
Alexander Vedernikov
Joshua Weilerstein

Chamber Music Partners

Trio Zimmermann
Nicholas Angelich
Emmanuel Ax
Gautier Capucon
Ebene Quartet
Martin Fröst
Hagen Quartet
Leonidas Kavakos
Gidon Kremer
Emmanuel Pahud
Francesco Piemontesi
Christian Tetzlaff
Cédric Tiberghien
Jörg Widmann
Shai Wosner

World Premieres

George Benjamin Viola, Viola (1997)
Bruno Mantovani Concerto for Two Violas
Olga Neuwirth Remnants of Songs… an Amphigory (2009)
Jörg Widmann Concerto (2015)

One of the most gifted French musicians of the era… The work is made to measure for Tamestit, his style of playing, his tone, his personality.

Le Figaro

Antoine Tamestit possesses a flawless technique and combines effortless musicality with an easy communicative power. He has too a sumptuously rich tone which gains an agreeable sweetness at the top end and heard to pleasing effect in the first movement.

Bachtrack

Antoine Tamestit played marvellously, with superb musicianship, technique and rich timbre, and a love for the music that shone through.

Classical Source

Intermusica represents Antoine Tamestit worldwide.

Aimee Chow
Director, Berlin
+44 20 7608 9949
achow@intermusica.com

Hazel Park
Assistant Artist Manager
+44 20 7608 9948
hpark@intermusica.com

If you have any queries, please fill in the form below, and we will be in touch soon

All artists

Chansonnier

HK Gruber

Counter-tenor

Tim Mead

Piano accompanist

Roger Vignoles