Claude Starck was influenced both personally and musically by his father, the organist Walther Starck, who introduced him to music during his early years of education. He began playing the cello at the age of four using a musical education method developed by his father and based on the principle of making music by ear.

In 1943, he won the cello competition in Alsace-Baden. He studied at the Paris Conservatory with Paul Bazelaire, Pierre Fournier and Paul Tortelier, winning first prize in 1951. In 1957, he won a medal at the Geneva Competition.

He first became principal cellist of the Lucerne Festival Strings, before holding the same position from 1960 to 1993 with the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich. Until 1976 he was also a member of the Tonhalle Quartet. In addition to a very active life as a concert performer, Claude Starck was also a professor at the Zurich University of Music between 1963 and 1996 and guided more than one hundred students to the diploma of teacher or concert performer.

Claude Starck has participated in more than 20 recordings, including several for Claves Records. In preparation for the recording of the complete cello sonatas of Antonio Vivaldi, he traveled to Italy to have access to the originals and discovered three sonatas that were recorded for Tudor Records and are now part of the repertoire.

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