With his musical versatility and captivating concerts, Andreas Ottensamer has captured audiences and critics alike, putting him in high demand as a clarinetist, conductor and artistic director.
Ottensamer is considered one of the leading instrumentalists of our time and performs as a clarinet soloist with the most renowned orchestras and conductors in the world’s great concert halls. 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.
First taking the podium as a conductor in January of 2021, Mr. Ottensamer is already much sought after in this capacity. The same year, electrifying performances with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra followed. In August of 2021 he was awarded the Neeme Järvi Prize of the Gstaad Festival Conducting Academy.
In the Summer of 2022 he gave his hugely successful conducting debut in Asia with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Aichi Chamber Orchestra in Nagoya and with Seoul’s KBS Symphony Orchestra. Further conducting engagements during this season included appearances with the MDR Symphonic Orchestra Leipzig, Prague Philharmonia, Orquestra Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Real Philharmonia Galicia, Orchestre Metropolitain and Liszt Chamber Orchestra. Recently, he appeared as the conductor of the Sinfonietta Cracovia and at the Festival Al Bustan.
In December 2022 Andreas Ottensamer participated in the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy to work on Verdi‘s Messa da Requiem together with Maestro Muti and the Orchestra Cherubini in Ravenna, Italy.
Ottensamer is artistic director of the Bürgenstock Festival in Switzerland and the Artström Festival at the Stienitzsee close to Berlin. 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.
Since 2013, Mr. Ottensamer has an exclusive recording deal with Deutsche Grammophon, making him the first ever clarinetist on the Yellow Label. For his album Blue Hour, featuring works by 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”. Together with Yuja Wang and Gautier Capucon he has recorded Brahms’ clarinet trio, released with DG in September 2022.
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 years old. At the age of ten he began studying cello at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, then switched to the clarinet in 2003.
In 2009 he interrupted his Harvard undergraduate studies to pursue a scholarship with the Orchestra Academy of the Berliner Philharmonic.
Ottensamer has studied conducting with Professor Nicolas Pasquet in Weimar, and taken masterclasses with Professor Johannes Schlaefli and Jaap van Zweden.
Ever since March of 2011, Ottensamer has held the position of principal clarinetist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.