Andreas Ottensamer

Ottensamer is considered one of the leading instrumentalists of our time and performs as a clarinet soloist in the major concert halls around the world with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the Seoul Philharmonic and the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, Sir Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Daniel Harding and Lorenzo Viotti.
He is a regular guest artist at festivals such as the Salzburger Festspiele, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival and the Festival de Pâques d’Aix en Provence.

Since the 2020/21 season, Ottensamer has taken the podium as a conductor and is already much sought after. In 2021 he gave his debut with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and has been awarded the Neeme Järvi Prize of the Gstaad Festival Conducting Academy.
In 2022 Ottensamer will conduct the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, the KBS Symphony Orchestra, the Prag Philharmonia, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and the Orquestra Gulbenkian in Lisbon amongst others. Further engagements will take him to the Kammerorchester Basel, the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Real Philharmonia Galicia and the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra.

Ottensamer is artistic director of the Bürgenstock Festival in Switzerland. His artistic partnerships as a chamber musician include work with Yuja Wang, Seong-Jin Cho, Lisa Batiashvili, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Phillippe Jaroussky, Gautier Capuçon and Sol Gabetta.

Andreas Ottensamer has an exclusive recording partnership with Deutsche Grammophon since 2013, making him the first ever clarinetist on the Yellow Label. For his album Blue Hour, featuring works of Weber, Mendelssohn and Brahms, he partnered with the Berlin Philharmonic under Mariss Jansons and received his second Opus Klassik award as “Instrumentalist of the year”.

Andreas Ottensamer was born in 1989 in Vienna. He comes from an Austro-Hungarian family of musicians and was drawn to music early, receiving his first piano lessons when he was four. At the age of ten he began studying cello at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, then changed to the clarinet in 2003.
In 2009 he interrupted his Harvard undergraduate studies to become a scholar of the Orchestra Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Ottensamer has been studying conducting with Professor Nicolas Pasquet in Weimar and taken masterclasses with Professor Johannes Schlaefli and Jaap van Zweden.

Since March 2011, Ottensamer has held the position of principal clarinetist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.