Christoph Altstaedt

Inspiring new audiences for opera and concerts through innovative concert formats and experimental music theatre is a central concern of conductor Christoph Altstaedt. His programs span a wide range, from Baroque music performed on period instruments to contemporary electronic music. After early positions as répétiteur and Kapellmeister at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich and at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, he has appeared as a guest at Zurich Opera, Theater Basel, Komische Oper Berlin, the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, Opera North, Glyndebourne on Tour, as well as at the Salzburg, Bregenz and Savonlinna Festivals.

His close collaboration with Martin Schläpfer also brought him to the Vienna State Ballet. At the Volksoper Wien, Christoph Altstaedt conducted Schläpfer’s Ein Deutsches Requiem (music by Brahms), the triple bill The Moon Wears a White Shirt (music by Schnittke, Ligeti & Locatelli) and Thierry Malandain’s Marie Antoinette (music by Haydn & Gluck). He made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 2023 conducting Haydn’s The Seasons in Martin Schläpfer’s choreography. In April 2025, he returned as conductor for George Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15 and Schläpfer’s Pathétique as part of the ballet evening of the same name.

In recent seasons, he has conducted major symphony orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra London, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Academy of Ancient Music, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. He has maintained a long-standing collaboration with the Ulster Orchestra and regularly works with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra following his debut with Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall.

As a conductor of film music, Christoph Altstaedt is committed to the re-scoring and musical adaptation of silent-era films. For ARTE and the UFA Film Nights Berlin, he recorded the score for Ernst Lubitsch’s Carmen with Ensemble Kontraste. With Ensemble Resonanz, he presented Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s Faust at the Salzburg Festival and produced Stroheim’s The Merry Widow for ARTE and the Elbphilharmonie.

Since his time as a pianist and assistant with the German National Youth Orchestra, Altstaedt has been deeply committed to youth work and music education. In 2024, he toured with the Australian Youth Orchestra in a program featuring Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre and HK Gruber’s Frankenstein!!. In the previous season, he developed a project with the German National Youth Orchestra and hearing-impaired students based on Beethoven’s Heiligenstadt Testament, which was also recorded for the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall.