Born in Hamburg in 1963, Joachim Held received his musical training at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis under Eugen Dombois and Hopkinson Smith. In 1988, he completed his studies with a “diploma in early music”. From 1988 to 1990, he studied with Jürgen Hübscher at the Karlsruhe University of Music, graduating with the “Final Artistic Examination”.
In 1990, Joachim Held won second prize at the “Concours Musica Antiqua” at the Flanders Festival in Bruges. Since then, he has been intensively involved in international concert activities as a soloist, chamber musician and continuo player.
As a continuo player, he has performed under the baton of Ivor Bolton, Alessandro de Marchi, Ottavio Dantone, Alessandro Quarta, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Giovanni Antonini, Rene Jacobs, Sir Simon Rattle, Kent Nagano, Claudio Abbado and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, among others.
Joachim Held has been recording solo CDs for Hänssler Classic since 2005. As early as 2006, he received the Echo Klassik award for the best solo recording of the 17th – 18th century for his CD “Erfreuliche Lautenlust”. In 2022, a CD with works by Johann Georg Weichenberger was released by Hänssler Classic.
Joachim Held has performed as a soloist at many festivals in Europe, Africa, Japan and South America.
In 2025, he was a member of the faculty of the American Lute Society’s online festival.
Joachim Held is professor of historical lute instruments at the University of the Arts Bremen and at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.
