Around the Music Festival

Andreas Ottensamer, principal clarinetist of the Berlin Philharmonic, announced on his social networking site that he would be leaving the orchestra. He has been with the orchestra for 14 years, but he says he is leaving to concentrate on his activities as a conductor.

Ottensamer was born in Vienna and is 35 years old. He is of Austrian-Hungarian descent, and his father Ernst（1955-2017） was the principal clarinetist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for many years, while his older brother Daniel is currently the principal clarinetist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

He began playing the piano at the age of four, and at the age of ten he began studying the cello at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. In 2003, he switched to the clarinet. During this time, he won numerous prizes in competitions for piano, cello and clarinet.

He then went on to work as an orchestral musician with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. In 2009, while studying at Harvard University, he entered the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Academy. He then became a principal player in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 21.

While he is active as a star clarinet player, he also performs as a chamber musician, collaborating with artists such as Murray Perahia, Leif Ove Andsnes and YoYo Ma, and is also a member of the Ensemble Wien-Berlin. He also serves as artistic director of the Bürgenstock Music Festival in Switzerland, together with pianist José Gallardo.

He made his conducting debut in 2021, and has gradually expanded his activities since then. He studied under Simon Rattle and Christian Thielemann, and in the spring of 2023 he participated in Riccardo Muti’s “Italian Opera Conducting Academy” at the “Tokyo Spring Music Festival”.

PHOTO：Orchestre Métropolitain　/　François Goupil