Born in 1989, Andreas Ottensamer is the most celebrated clarinettist playing today. He began his University studies as a student at Harvard, but in 2009, at the age of twenty, he interrupted his studies to become a scholar of the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic. He is now the principal clarinettist of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Ottensamer has won first prize in competitions for clarinet, cello and piano, and performs as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the world with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under Sir Simon Rattle, Yannick Nezét-Séguin, Andris Nelsons, Pablo Heras-Casado and Alan Gilbert.

His artistic partnerships as chamber musician include work with Murray Perahia, Leif Ove Andsnes, Leonidas Kavakos, Janine Jansen, Sol Gabetta and Yo-Yo Ma, and together with pianist José Gallardo he is artistic director of the Bürgenstock Festival in Switzerland. In February 2013 Andreas Ottensamer entered an exclusive recording partnership with Deutsche Grammophon, making him the first ever solo clarinettist to sign an exclusive agreement with the Yellow Label. His second album ‘Brahms – The Hungarian Connection’ won the Echo Klassik Award for Instrumentalist of the Year 2015.

A highlight of the current season was the Europakonzert of the Berlin Philharmonic, in May 2017, in which Andreas Ottensamer performed Carl Maria von Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1 under Mariss Jansons.

José Gallardo was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He began his piano studies at the Conservatory in Buenos Aires, later moving to the Department of Music, University of Mainz, from which he graduated in 1997. The winner of many prizes, including the first prize at the Westphalia Music , he has performed in Europe, Asia, Israel, Oceania, and South America.

Chamber music cooperations include Alberto Lysy, the Israeli percussionist Chen Zimbalista and Linus Roth, Natascha Korsakova, Friedemann Eichhorn, Sung Hyun-Jung, Julius Berger, Martin Dobner and Andreas Ottensamer. Among his partners in masterclasses are Maxim Vengerov, Siegfried Palm, Bernard greenhouse, and Steven Isserlis.

Recent concerts have included performances at the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Musikhalle Hamburg, the Kurhaus in Wiesbaden, the Teatro della Pergola Florence and the Wigmore Hall in London.