Andreas Ottensamer
Andreas Ottensamer has won over audiences and critics with his unique musicality and versatility as a clarinetist, conductor, and orchestra leader. Considered one of the most important instrumentalists of our time, Ottensamer performs as solo clarinetist in the world’s leading concert halls, collaborating with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic and Netherlands Philharmonic, under the baton of Mariss Jansons, Sir Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Harding and Lorenzo Viotti.
He is a regular guest at festivals such as the Salzburger Festspiele, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival, and the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence. From 2011 to 2025, Ottensamer served as first clarinet soloist of the Berliner Philharmoniker. In 2021 he embarked on a conducting career and was awarded the Neeme Järvi Prize (1st prize) of the Gstaad Festival Conducting Academy. In the following two seasons he collaborated with Maestro Riccardo Muti as part of his Italian Opera Academy and assisted Sir Simon Rattle with the BR Sinfonieorchester and Christian Thielemann in a production of Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Wiener Staatsoper. Since then he has conducted orchestras such as the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, MDR Sinfonieorchester in Leipzig, Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Münchener Kammerorchester, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, and Kammerakademie Potsdam. In the 2024/25 season Andreas will debut with orchestras such as the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg at the Mozartwoche, the Tonkünstler-Orchester, the Grazer Philharmoniker, the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and the Naples Philharmonic. He will also return to conduct the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Münchener Kammerorchester, Sinfonietta Cracow, and Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra. In 2025/26 he will conduct Humperdinck’s opera Hänsel und Gretel in a new production at the Houston Grand Opera. Ottensamer is artistic director of the Bürgenstock Festival in Switzerland.
As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with Yuja Wang, Seong-Jin Cho, Lisa Batiashvili, Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Philippe Jaroussky, Gautier Capuçon, Sol Gabetta and many others. Since 2013 Ottensamer has had an exclusive recording partnership with Deutsche Grammophon, becoming the first clarinetist in the history of the yellow label. For the album Blue Hour, featuring music by Weber, Mendelssohn and Brahms, he collaborated with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Mariss Jansons, winning his second Opus Klassik as “Instrumentalist of the Year.” Together with Yuja Wang and Gautier Capuçon, he recorded the Brahms Clarinet Trio, released by DG in September 2022. His most recent album is with his longtime recital partner, José Gallardo. Andreas Ottensamer was born in Vienna in 1989. He comes from an Austro-Hungarian family of musicians and was introduced to music at an early age, receiving his first piano lessons at the age of four.
At the age of ten, he began studying cello at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, then switched to clarinet in 2003. In 2009 he interrupted his undergraduate studies at Harvard to become a fellow of the Orchestra Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Ottensamer studied conducting with Professor Nicolas Pasquet (Weimar) and participated in master classes with Professor Johannes Schlaefli (Zurich).