As a member of the European Concert Hall Association’s (ECHO) Rising Stars program, Mr. Tamestit toured Europe in 2005-2006, including concerts at the Koln Philarmonie, Vienna Musikverein, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Brussels Palaix des Beaux Arts, Athens Concert Hall, Stockholm Konzerthuset, Cite de la Musique in Paris, and an appearance at Carnegie Hall – the only non-European member of ECHO – in its Distinctive Debuts series. 

Mr. Tamestit was also a member of the BBC’s prestigious New Generation Artists program in 2004-2006, a program that included of three solo recordings for BBC Radio 3, concerto recordings with BBC orchestras throughout the U.K., and recital engagements, including a debut performance at London’s Wigmore Hall in October 2006. 

Mr. Tamestit is the recipient of a 2006 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.  At the 2004 Munich International Music Competition of ARD, he won First Prize, the Audience Prize and the Prize for Best Contemporary Music Performance.  His other awards include First Prize in the 2001 William Primrose International Viola Competition in Chicago and First Prize at the 2000 Maurice Vieux International Viola Competition in Paris.

After winning the 2003 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Tamestit made his recital debuts in New York, Washington, DC and Boston in 2004.  In 2005, he performed in the Young Concert Artists Series’ Peter Jay Sharp Concert at Carnegie’s Weill Hall with YCA harpist Catrin Finch and YCA alumna flutist Eugenia Zukerman.  He has also appeared on the Caramoor Festival’s "Rising Stars" Series in Katonah (NY), and as soloist with the Pasadena Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle in Durham (NC).

Mr. Tamestit has appeared in Europe at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Academy of the 20th Century in France under the baton of Pierre Boulez, the Santander Festival in Spain, the Holland Music Sessions at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the “Chamber Music Connects the World” project of the Kronberg Academy in Germany, the Euro Musica Vitae Festival in Sweden, as soloist with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and at the Louvre in Paris.  He collaborates as chamber musician with the Trio à Cordes de Paris, the Tokyo String Quartet, Gidon Kremer, Joseph Silverstein, Isabelle Faust, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Boris Pergamenshikow, Jean-Guihen Queyras and David Geringas. 

Antoine Tamestit was born in Paris.  He began to play the violin at the age of six, but fell in love with the deeper voice of the viola at the age of ten.  He graduated from the Paris Conservatory in 1999, a student of Jean Sulem.  The recipient of both a Fulbright Scholarship from the Franco-American Commission and a Lavoisier Scholarship from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Tamestit earned a Master’s degree from Yale University, where he studied with two YCA alumni: violist Jesse Levine and the Tokyo String Quartet.  Mr. Tamestit also worked with Tabea Zimmermann in Berlin.

He can be heard on CD on the Decca label performing the Bach Chaconne arranged for four violas.  A recording of Georges Benjamin’s piece Viola, Viola featuring Mr. Tamestit and Tabea Zimmerman is available on Nimbus Records.

Bio courtesy of www.yca.org.