Andreas Ottensamer

Andreas Ottensamer performs as a soloist in the major international concert halls, with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic, the Orchestre Metropolitain, the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic, the European Union Youth Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, Sir Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Stephane Deneve, Alan Gilbert and Lorenzo Viotti.

His artistic partnerships as a chamber musician include work with Yuja Wang, Leonidas Kavakos, Janine Jansen, Lisa Batiashvili, Nemanja Radulovic, Nicolas Altstädt and Sol Gabetta. In 2005 Ottensamer founded the clarinet trio “The Clarinotts” with his father Ernst and brother Daniel. He is artistic director of the Bürgenstock Festival in Switzerland, together with pianist José Gallardo, and the Artström Festival in Berlin.

In February 2013 he entered into an exclusive recording partnership with Deutsche Grammophon, becoming the first ever solo clarinettist to sign an exclusive agreement with the Yellow Label. For his second album, “Brahms - The Hungarian Connection”, Ottensamer was awarded the ECHO KLASSIK as Instrumentalist of the year 2015. He went on to record “New Era” for Decca Classics, performing repertoire of the Mannheim school with Emmanuel Pahud, Albrecht Mayer and the Kammerakademie Potsdam. His latest album for Deutsche Grammophon, “Blue Hour”, a collaboration with Yuja Wang, Maris Jansons and the Berliner Philharmoniker performing works by Weber, Brahms and Mendelssohn, won him Opus Klassik’s Instrumentalist of the Year.

Highlights of the 2018/19 season included guest solo performances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony, Aix-enProvence Easter Festival and the Salzburg Festival where he performed the Weber Clarinet Concerto with the Camerata Salzburg and Lorenzo Viotti. He was Artist in Residence at the Schwetzingen Festival and performed in the Utzon Recital series at Sydney Opera House and, with Yuja Wang, at Carnegie Hall, the Gstaad Menhuin Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival.

Engagements in curtailed 2019/2020 season included the Mozart Clarinet Concerto at the Salzburg Mozartwoche, a concert tour with the Camerata Salzburg, appearances with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra and a recital with Yuja Wang at London’s Barbican Centre.

This season he appears as guest soloist with the Dalasinfoniettan in Sweden, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Musikkolegium Winterthur, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Barcelona Symphony. He gives recitals in Hamburg, Bremen and Graz with José Gallardo and at London’s Wigmore Hall. He embarks on a European trio tour with Gautier Capuçon and Yuja Wang, a tour of China with the Clarinotts and he ends the season with appearances at the Salzburg Festival and the Festival de Périgord noir. He also records his own new arrangements of Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte with the Schumann Quartett for Deutsche Grammophon.

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, switching 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. Since March 2011 Ottensamer has been principal clarinettist with the Berliner Philharmoniker.