Andreas Ottensamer
Andreas Ottensamer has captured audiences and critics alike with his distinct musicianship and versatility as clarinettist, artistic director and conductor. In the 2024-25 season, Ottensamer will give conducting debuts with orchestras such as the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg at the Mozartwoche, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Grazer Philharmoniker, Basel Sinfonieorchester, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Naples Philharmonic.
He will return to conduct the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Münchener Kammerorchester and Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra. Recent highlights include debuts with Kammerorchester Basel in a tour of Asia, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Metropolitain Montreal, Seoul Philharmonic, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Sofia Philharmonic, Philharmonisches Orchester Erfurt, Janáček Philharmonic and the Liszt Chamber Orchestra.
In 2021, Ottensamer was awarded the Neeme Järvi Prize (1st Prize) of the Gstaad Festival Conducting Academy. Since then, he has joined Maestro Riccardo Muti in his Italian Opera Academy, assisted Sir Simon Rattle with the BR Sinfonieorchester, François-Xavier Roth with the LSO and Christian Thielemann in a production of Wagner’s „Lohengrin“ at the Vienna State Opera.
Ottensamer is artistic director of the Bürgenstock Festival in Switzerland and the Artström Festival at the Stienitz-Lake near Berlin, Germany. In 2023 he curated the program of the Classic Revolution Festival at the Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, Korea, consisting of 7 symphonic and 3 chamber music concerts including the KBS Symphony Orchestra and the Seoul Philharmonic.
Having established his musical career as a clarinet soloist, Ottensamer has performed in 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, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the Netherlands Philharmonic under Mariss Jansons, Sir Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Harding and Lorenzo Viotti.
He has an exclusive recording partnership with Deutsche Grammophon, having released numerous recordings. For his album „Blue Hour“, featuring the Berlin Philharmonic under Mariss Jansons, Ottensamer received his second Opus Klassik award as „Instrumentalist of the year“ in 2019. His latest album with his long-term recital partner José Gallardo will be released in 2025.
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 held the position of principal clarinettist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra from 2011 to 2025.
