Daniel Ottensamer

DANIEL OTTENSAMER has been hailed as one of the leading clarinetists of our time and is enjoying a multi-faceted career as soloist, chamber musician and principal clarinetist of the Vienna Philharmonic. As a soloist he is regularly invited to perform with renowned orchestras, among them the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Essen Philharmonic, the Radio Orchestras of Cologne, Munich and Vienna with conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Gustavo Dudamel, Andris Nelsons, Adam Fischer, Manfred Honeck, Fabio Luisi, Ivor Bolton, Enrique Mazzola. He has also performed in Lucerne, Budapest and Luxembourg. An avid chamber musician, Daniel Ottensamer has performed and collaborated with Daniel Barenboim, Sir András Schiff, Barbara Bonney, Thomas Hampson, Bobby McFerrin, Heinrich Schiff, Isabelle Faust, Mischa Maisky, and the Hagen Quartet. With his ensemble The Clarinet Trio Anthology, he has performed in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Switzerland and beyond. His repertoire covers almost all clarinet concertos, from Mozart, Rossini, Spohr and Weber to Paul Hindemith, Gerald Finzi, Jean Françaix, Magnus Lindberg, Aaron Copland, Carl Nielsen, Luciano Berio, Krzysztof Penderecki and other composers of the twentieth century, recorded on a number of different Sony Classical albums. In 2022, an unique seven-CD collection entitled The Clarinet Trio Anthology was released, encompassing the entire repertoire for clarinet, cello and piano recorded with his long-standing chamber music partners Stephan Koncz and Christoph Traxler. The talented instrumentalist also plays with the Philharmonix, an interesting ensemble founded by musicians from the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, whose extensive repertoire has no stylistic limitations. In 2018 it was honoured with the Opus Klassik Prize. Born in 1986, he began studying piano in 1992 and switched to cello two years later. He then turned to the clarinet, studying with Anton Hafenscher at the Music School in Perchtoldsdorf, in 2004, he began studying under Johann Hindler at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In September 2009, he was appointed first clarinetist of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra. Daniel Ottensamer has won several prizes at various international clarinet competitions. These include the Grand Scholarship Competition of the Munich Concert Society in 2005; the Animato Foundation in Zurich in 2006; and the Carl Nielsen International Clarinet Competition in 2009.