Mathis Rochat is a swiss-french viola player based in Berlin.
Inspired by Yuri Bashmet’s saying „Nobody knows how viola should sound!“, he enjoys the freedom that his instrument gives him in terms of sound coloring and likes to explore all kind of repertoire, new and old, originals and transcriptions.
Mathis has appeared as a soloist with the Walton Viola Concerto, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante and the Hoffmeister Viola Concerto with orchestras such as the Norddeutsche Philharmonie and the Da Capo Ensemble.
A keen chamber musician, Mathis Rochat appears in different formations across Europe, China and South america and has been taking part in festivals and music series such as the Tsinandali Festival (GE), Kronberg Academy’s Chamber music connects the world(GER), Krzyzowa music (POL) or Festival de Pâque and Août musical de Deauville (FR). Through chamber music he got the chance to play with some of the greatest artists alive such as Gidon Kremer, Pinchas Zuckermann, Lynn Harrell, Augustin Dumay, Christian Tetzlaff and Antje Weithass and some of the most promising classical artists such as David Kadouch, Alasdair Beatson,Pierre Fouchenneret, Victor Julien-Lafferière, Nadège Rochat, Anastasia Kobekina, Amaury Coeytaux or Will Hagen.
A winner of the national German competition “Jugend Musiziert” in solo and chamber music categories he was awarded special prizes at the « Cecil Aronowitz » and « Beethoven hradec“ international competitions and 1st Prize at the “Verao Classico international competition and masterclasses” 2019 in Lisbon.
His debut Album with the Welsh-Turkish pianist Erdem Misirlioglu, “L’alto Parnassien” was selected as “album of the month” by the German “Klassik Radio” and his second recording around the music of S.Rachmaninov is to be released in autumn 2021 by the label “Prospero Classical”.
Mathis Rochat is a scholarship holder of the LYRA foundation Switzerland, Villa Musica foundation Rheinland Pfalz and is a regular guest of the fondation Singer-Polignac in Paris.
Born in 1994 in Geneva, he started his musical studies on the violin before moving to Cologne (Germany) and discovering his passion for the viola. He began his higher education as a 15 year old “young student” at the Cologne HfMT in the class of prof. Antoine Tamestit, moved then to Leipzig to follow the teaching of prof. Tatjana Masurenko at the Felix Bartholdy Mendelssohn HMT before finalizing his studies as an artist in residence at the “Queen Elisabeth Chapel” in Brussels and the BarenboimSaid Akademie in Berlin.
He has also taken masterclasses in IMS Prussia Cove, Kronberg masterclasses and Blonay masterclasses with renowned violists and teachers such as Tabea Zimmermann, Nobuko Imai, Lars Anders Tomter, Thomas Riebl et Garth Knox.
He plays on a Viola by Pierre Vidoudez (1949).