The Austrian clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer has captured audiences and critics alike with the singular beauty of tone that he coaxes from the instrument. Born in 1989, Andreas Ottensamer comes from an Austro-Hungarian family of musicians and received his first piano lessons when he was four. At the age of ten, he began studying the cello at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna and changed to the clarinet in 2003, studying with Johann Hindler. In 2009 he interrupted his studies at Harvard University to become a scholar of the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic and is now principal clarinettist of the Berlin Philharmonic.
Ottensamer performs as a soloist in the major concert halls around the world with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic, the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic under Mariss Jansons, Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Alan Gilbert and Lorenzo Viotti.
He performs as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the world. His chamber music partners include Yuja Wang, Leonidas Kavakos, Janine Jansen, Lisa Batiashvili, Nemanja Radulovi?, Nicolas Altstaedt and Sol Gabetta. Together with pianist José Gallardo he is artistic director of the Bürgenstock Festival in Switzerland. In 2005 Andreas Ottensamer founded The Clarinotts with his late father Ernst and brother Daniel, who is principal clarinettist of the Vienna Philharmonic.
In February 2013 Andreas Ottensamer entered an exclusive recording partnership with Deutsche Grammophon, making him the first ever solo clarinettist to sign an exclusive agreement with the label. His second album, Brahms – The Hungarian Connection, won the Echo Klassik Award for instrumentalist of the year in 2015. In February 2017 his album New Era was released by Decca. For his latest album New Era he collaborated with his colleagues Emmanuel Pahud and Albrecht Mayer together with the Kammerakademie Potsdam to record works of the Mannheim school. In April and May 2017 he performed Weber’s First Clarinet Concerto under Mariss Jansons in Berlin and Cyprus, which will be released on DVD.
During the 2017/18 season Andreas Ottensamer holds the title of ‘Junge Wilde’ at the Konzerthaus in Dortmund and Menuhin Heritage Artist at the Gstaad Festival, as well as being artist in residence with the Kammerakademie Potsdam and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Current as of June 2018
