Antoine Tamestit is recognized internationally as one of the most important viola players. As a soloist and a chamber musician, he is known for his unsurpassed technique and the beauty of his sound. His broad repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the present day. His engagement with contemporary music is reflected in numerous world premieres and recordings, including Thierry Escaich’s La Nuit des chants, Bruno Mantovani’s Concerto pour deux altos et orchestre and Olga Neuwirth’s Remnants of songs… an Amphigory and Weariness heals Wounds. One of the works commissioned by Antoine Tamestit is Jörg Widmann’s Viola Concerto and he gave the premiere in 2015 with the Orchestre de Paris and Paavo Järvi. He has appeared as a soloist with such renowned orchestras as the Czech Philharmonic, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, working with well-known conductors including Valery Gergiev, Riccardo Muti, Daniel Harding, Marek Janowski, Antonio Pappano, François-Xavier Roth, Emmanuel Krivine and Franz Welser-Möst.
In the 2020/21 season Antoine Tamestit has been invited to perform with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France and the Orchestre de Paris.
He founded the Trio Zimmermann with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Christian Poltéra. Other chamber music partners include Nicholas Angelich, Gautier Capuçon, Martin Fröst, Leonidas Kavakos, Nikolai Lugansky, Emmanuel Pahud, Francesco Piemontesi, Christian Tetzlaff, Cédric Tiberghien, Yuja Wang, Jörg Widmann, Shai Wosner as well as the Quatuor Ébène and the Hagen Quartet.
Antoine Tamestit records for harmonia mundi and recently released a CD of works by Brahms with Cédric Tiberghien. Other notable recordings include Jörg Widmann’s Viola Concerto with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding, which was released in February 2018.
He plays a viola by Antonio Stradivari from 1672, loaned by the Habisreutinger Foundation.
