From 1996 to 2001, Altstaedt was a student of Marcio Carneiro at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold and went on to learn with Ivan Monighetti at the City of Basel Music Academy.

He was also one of Boris Pergamenschikow’s last students at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, and continued studies later with David Geringas and Eberhard Feltz.

[4] As a chamber musician, Altstaedt regularly collaborators include Janine Jansen, Vilde Frang, Christian Tetzlaff, Pekka Kuusisto, Barnabás Kelemen, Joshua Bell, Ilya Gringolts, Tabea Zimmermann, Lawrence Power, Antoine Tamestit, Martin Fröst, Alexander Lonquich, Jonathan Cohen, Jean Rondeau and Quatuor Ébène.

[citation needed] Altstaedt premieres new music and performs with composers like Wolfgang Rihm, Thomas Ades, Jörg Widmann, Matthias Pintscher, Fazıl Say, Bryce Dessner and Sofia Gubaidulina.

His latest recording – Four Cities – a recital program of works by Say, Debussy, Shostakovich and Janáček with Fazıl Say was released on Warner Classics received the Edison Klassiek 2017.