Christian Poltéra

Swiss cellist Christian Poltéra (b. 1977). After working with Nancy Chumachenco and Boris Pergamenschikow, he studied with Heinrich Schiff in Salzburg and Vienna. Besides appearances as a soloist with numerous leading orchestras (BBC Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Bamberg, Vienna and Berlin Symphony Orchestras, etc.), he dedicates himself intensively to chamber music, playing with musicians such as Gidon Kremer, Leonidas Kavakos, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Leif Ove Andsnes, Kathryn Stott and the Guarneri, Auryn and Zehetmair Quartets. He is frequently invited to prestigious festivals, among them Salzburg, Lucerne, Berlin, Lockenhaus and Vienna. Poltéra’s discography reflects his wide-ranging repertoire, including cello concertos by Dvorák and Toch as well as chamber music by Prokofiev, Fauré and Schubert. In 2004 he received a Borletti-Buitoni Award and was also selected to be a BBC New Generation Artist. For the 2006/2007 season, Christian Poltéra was appointed a European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) ‘Rising Star’, together with the pianist Polina Leschenko; as such, they give concerts in almost all the major European concert halls and at Carnegie Hall, New York.