Andreas Ottensamer

Andreas Ottensamer has earned recognition chiefly as a clarinetist, yet his record of competition successes also encompasses cello and piano, along with tennis events. His range extends across chamber and orchestral repertoire as well as pop and jazz idioms.

Born in Vienna on April 4, 1989, Ottensamer began piano study at age four and cello at ten; in 2003 he focused on the clarinet under Johann Hindler at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. “Music was present from the first day of my life before I could even realize what was going on,” he remarked to Limelight magazine. Prizes in major contests came for each of his instruments, after which he assumed the principal clarinet chair in both the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. While completing graduate work at Harvard University he received a scholarship to the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 2011 he advanced to principal clarinetist of the Berlin Philharmonic.

In chamber settings Ottensamer has appeared alongside Murray Perahia, Janine Jansen, and Yo-Yo Ma; he also shares artistic direction of the Bürgenstock Festival with pianist José Gallardo. Together with his father, Ernst Ottensamer, and his brother, Daniel Ottensamer, he performs in the clarinet trio The Clarinotts, whose self-titled album appeared on Mercury Classics/Deutsche Grammophon. He has explored jazz and pop as well, joining Tori Amos on the 2011 album Night of Hunters.

Ottensamer’s first solo recording, Portraits: The Clarinet Album, was issued by Deutsche Grammophon in 2013 after the label approached him unsolicited. The program included concertos by Copland, Spohr, and Cimarosa plus an arrangement of Gershwin’s Preludes for clarinet; the release made no attempt at crossover appeal. Subsequent projects continued this pattern of distinctive programming. On the 2015 album Brahms: The Hungarian Connection he illuminated Hungarian elements even within the Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115, an effort that brought him Echo Klassik’s Instrumentalist of the Year honor in Germany. In 2017 he moved to Decca for New Era, devoted to clarinet pieces by composers of the Mannheim school who elevated the instrument’s orchestral role. He returned to Deutsche Grammophon in 2019 with Blue Hour, and in 2022 he joined cellist Gautier Capuçon and pianist Yuja Wang for a recording of Brahms’ Clarinet Trio, Op. 114.