Christian Poltéra - About

I feel very fortunate and grateful to have been chosen to benefit from the unique support BBT offers. What makes this Trust so important, especially to me, is partly that it excludes any competition among young musicians but instead truly believes in the individual potential and development of each of the chosen candidates. This kind of help, collaboration and trust makes me feel truly supported and encouraged in my work.

Swiss-born Christian Poltéra has steadily established himself as one of the most prominent cellists of his generation. As well as performing as a soloist with many of the world’s most eminent orchestras and conductors, he also devotes himself intensively to chamber music, working with leading instrumentalists and small ensembles, most notably with longstanding musical colleagues violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann and violist Antoine Tamestit (as the Zimmermann Trio).

Christian’s extensive discography features many award-winning recordings, including more than 20 for BIS, a relationship that began when BBT introduced him to the label and supported his long-held ambition to record concertos and other rarely performed works by three Swiss composers, Arthur Honegger, Frank Martin and Othmar Schoeck. This project was the subject of one of three films made by BBT that feature Christian.

Christian remains a stalwart BBT alumnus, having participated in showcase tours in 2006 in Aldeburgh, London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Vienna, led by Christian Tetzlaff; in 2008 in the US (Kalamazoo, Philadelphia and New York) and Europe (Perugia, Amsterdam and London) led by Mitsuko Uchida; and in Amsterdam, London and Eindhoven in 2012. He also joined in the celebrations for BBT’s 20th anniversary at Wigmore Hall in 2023 in which many BBT alumni from across the decades took part.

Christian was supported with a BBT Award between 2004 and 2008.

For a current biography please visit ks-schoerke.de

Read a blog by Christian, The BBT Long-Term Effect, here

Press Releases: Works for Cello by Othmar Schoeck / Works for Cello by Arthur Honegger

Photographs by Neda Navaee, Simon Weir and Nikolaj Lund