Stéphane Gontiès began playing the violin at the age of 7 and studied with Catherine Courtois and then Gérard Jarry at the Paris Conservatoire. In 2000, he began to study the viola at the Lyon Conservatory, in the class of Jean-Philippe Vasseur, and in 2005, he was unanimously awarded a First Prize. Winner of the Brahms Competition, he perfected his skills with Tabea Zimmermann, Wolfram Christ and Diemut Poppen, and was then invited to numerous chamber music festivals such as the Villecroze Festival, with Tabea Zimmermann, or at Lockenhaus with Gidon Kremer, which led him to perform in Germany, Austria and France.

Since 2001, he has played with the Orchestre national de Lyon, then with the Vienna Opera Orchestra and became a member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. He obtained a position with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and in 2003 he joined the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande where he is currently titular member.