Joachim Held was born in Hamburg in 1963 and studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis as a pupil of Eugen Dombois and Hopkinson Smith. Following the graduation with a "Diploma of Period Music" in 1988 he completed his studies under Jürgen Hübscher at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe with a "Künstlerische Abschlussprüfung".
In 1990 the second prize at the Concours Musica Antiqua of the Flandern Festival in Brügge marked the beginning of his international concert career. Since 1992 he has regularly appeared with world famous orchestras including Il Giardino Armonico (amongst others on their Vivaldi recording with Cecialia Bartoli for Decca), the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Concentus Musicus and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Amongst the conductors he has worked are Giovanni Antonini, Claudio Abbado and Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Sir Simon Rattle. Under Nikolaus Harnoncourt he also participated in the production of Herny Purcell's "King Arthur" at the Salzburg Festival 2004. As a soloist Joachim Held appeared amongst others at the Musikfestival Potsdam-Sanssouci, the International Bach Festival Schaffhausen, the Schwetzinger Festival, the Düsseldorfer Bachtagen, the Bachtage Köthen, the Concerti a San Maurizio in Milan, the Early Music Forum Budapest, the concert series "Hausmusik" of the ORF Vienna, the Lute Society London, the "Güldener Herbst" in Thüringen and the Handel Festival in Halle at the river Saale.
Since 2005 Joachim Held's recordings are released world-wide by Hänssler Classic. The same year the CD "Lute Music of the Renaissance - The Schele Manuskript Hamburg 1619" was co-produced with the Swiss Radio DRS2. The Book of Tablature by Ernst Schele is one of the central manuscripts for six- to ten - course lutes from the end of the Renaissance period. It is often quoted but almost not scientifically explored. This CD recording represents one of the most beautiful collections of well-known and also less well-know works from the 16th till the 18th centuries.
In June 2006, his discographical journey to the most beautiful lute compositons continued to Germany. "German lute music of the Baroque" was produced together with the Deutschlandfunk Cologne. In 2007 Italy ("Che Soávita") and in 2008 France ("Musique pour le Roi") was reached. In 2010 England ("Merry Melancholy") is the theme. 2013 he publishes "The original lute works" by Johann Sebastian Bach.
In 2015 concerts led him to South America, the Czech Republic, the Salzburg Festival (with Thomas Hengelbrock) and projects with Ivor Bolton (Munich State opera)
Joachim Held is Professor at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and at the University of Arts in Bremen.
Further information: www.joachim-held.com