Invitations from renowned orchestras have led him all over the world. He has appeared with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Los Angeles and Oslo Philharmonic Orchestras, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker, Orchestre de Paris, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Münchner Philharmoniker, Santa Cecilia Orchestra Rome, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Stavanger Symphony, Residentie Orkest The Hague and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich under conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Bernard Haitink, John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Paavo Järvi and Andris Nelsons.

In addition to his solo career, Christian Poltéra devotes himself to chamber music. The concerts of the Zimmermann Trio – together with Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin) and Antoine Tamestit (viola) – are an integral part of the large concert hall programs worldwide. A series of CDs (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Hindemith, Schoenberg) prove the unique cooperation of this unsurpassed string trio. In addition, he performs with colleagues such as Mitsuko Uchida, Gidon Kremer, Lars Vogt, Leif Ove Andsnes, Isabelle Faust, Ronald Brautigam, Esther Hoppe and Kathryn Stott, as well as with the Artemis, Belcea, Auryn and Zehetmair string quartets. Again and again new projects arouse his interest, such as the 2020 release of two new CD’s, featuring arrangements of violin sonatas and songs of Schumann and Brahms together with Kathryn Scott, and Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night Op. 4 with Isabelle Faust and others.

He is also frequently heard performing at major international festivals in Salzburg, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Berlin, Vienna, Schleswig-Holstein and London.

Christian Poltéra’s much acclaimed recordings reflect his versatile and extensive repertoire. Among the award-winning CD recordings are the cello concertos of Dvořák, Walton, Ligeti, Barber, Dutilleux, Lutosławski, Honegger, Hindemith, Shostakovich, Martinů and Martin, as well as sonatas of Mendelssohn (awarded the BBC Music Award, Gramophone Choice, and Diapson D’Or de l’année), Fauré and Saint-Saëns. In 2020/2021 Poltéra recorded both cello concerti by Haydn with the Munich Chamber Orchestra as well as Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Lathi Symphony Orchestra.

Since 2013, Christian Poltéra is Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Days in the mountain church of Büsingen. He is also a lecturer at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, and regularly gives masterclasses.
He plays an Antonio Casini cello built in 1675 and the legendary Mara cello of Antonio Stradivari from 1711.