Antoine Tamestit - About

In the life of a young artist, the freedom and space for artistic inspiration and development are essential. BBT’s committee and staff are full of incredible personalities whose main goal is precisely to give this. They offer not only the financial support to help build one’s dreams, but also the advice, encouragement and practical means to realise them. Their help, although financially very important and meaningful, seems therefore priceless to me. It is a treasure for any artist. It gives us a rare opportunity to focus only on the artistic level of our goals, which therefore helps heighten our ideals. Personally, it gave me the freedom of choice for my future recordings, and the possibility, as a viola player, to imagine the best possible way to create a series of recordings of my instrument, with repertoire that touches me the most, and in a way that will reach the widest audience. A Thank You is not enough. I can only really thank you by working harder, realizing more dreams, and always keep on trying to reach my artistic ideals.

Born in Paris, Antoine Tamestit is recognised as one of the most distinguished viola players of his generation, possessing a “flawless technique” (Bachtrack) and the power to captivate audiences and critics alike.  As well as performing as a soloist with many of the world’s most eminent orchestras and conductors, he ardently pursues collaborations with leading instrumentalists in the realm of chamber music, most notably as a founding member of Trio Zimmermann with longstanding musical colleagues violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann and fellow BBT Award-winner, cellist Christian Poltéra.

With his BBT award Antoine was able to fulfil his early ambitions – to record repertoire dear to his heart and to commission a new work. Two recordings were released on the Ambroisie label: Chaconne, his very first recording, contrasted the musical and technical extremes of Bach and Ligeti works for solo viola; while the second offered a deft pairing of Shostakovich’s viola sonata and the darkly moving and powerful viola concerto of Alfred Schnittke, recorded with the Warsaw Philharmonic and conducted by Dmitrij Kitajenko in Poland, a meaningful ‘place of emotion and inspiration’ for Antoine, a feeling he expounded in a short BBT film. Another first for Antoine was being able to commission a brand new viola concerto written for him, Remnants of Songs… an Amphigory by Olga Neuwirth, which was premiered to great acclaim in October 2009.

Antoine was supported with a BBT Award between 2006 and 2010.

For a current biography please visit intermusica.co.uk

Read Antoine’s blogs: Olga Neuwirth and me: premiere night here; and Olga Neuwirth and me: serving and discovering here

Press release: Bach Ligeti Chaconne

Photographs by Philippe Matsas, Julien Mignot and Alescha Birkenholz