Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Antoine Tamestit

The orchestra’s distinctive sound results from an intense artistic dialogue shaped by an approach to performing shaped by chamber music. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra has enjoyed a long-standing artistic partnership with Daniel Harding, its current Honorary Conductor, as well as with its Artistic Advisor Daniele Gatti. Other close collaborators include pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Yuja Wang. While the orchestra initially focused primarily on the Classical and Romantic repertoire, it has since incorporated contemporary music into its programmes. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra is a regular guest at the concerts of the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation. Since 2024, the orchestra has held the artistic directorship of the Hitzacker Music Week.

“I think its sound is unique—especially warm, like that of an Italian opera singer,” he says. Admired for his technique and colourful tone, Antoine Tamestit has been acclaimed as “one of the best violists in the world” (Deutschlandfunk). He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, Yale University, as well as with Tabea Zimmermann in Berlin, and has won several prestigious competitions.

As a soloist and founding member of the Trio Zimmermann (together with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Christian Poltera), he can be heard with a wide-ranging repertoire from the Baroque to the present on all the major stages of the world. His strong commitment to contemporary music is evident in numerous world premieres of new works, such as the Viola Concerto by Jörg Widmann, Remnants of songs by Olga Neuwirth, or the Concerto for Two Violas by Bruno Mantovani. Antoine Tamestit was program director of the Viola Space Festival in Japan for ten years, focusing on expanding the viola repertoire and a broad spectrum of educational programs.