Bernhard Mitmesser
Bernhard Mitmesser was born in 1991 in Schwarzach-St Veit. He received his initial clarinet training at Musikum Pongau with Clemens Müller and Barbara Huber. From 2007 he studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Johann Hindler. He took up his first orchestral position in 2013 as a member of the orchestra academy of the Munich Philharmonic. From 2014 to 2018 he was principal clarinet in the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra. In December 2017 he had a successful audition for the stage orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, going on to appear regularly in opera productions and concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic. In 2019 he became principal clarinet with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg.
In May and June 2023, he was guest principal clarinet with the Berlin Philharmonic. Other guest engagements have taken him to perform with the Vienna Philharmonic and the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, and with Camerata Salzburg, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic and the Bavarian State Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Zurich.
As a soloist he has performed with orchestras including the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra, the Webern Symphony Orchestra, the Lyra Wien Chamber Orchestra, the Filharmonia Podkarpacka in Rzeszów, the Camerata Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile and the Vienna Mozart Orchestra, and with the Orquestra Sinfónica Juvenil de Caracas at the Festival Europeo de Jovénes Solistas in Caracas. In 2010 he made his solo recital debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus as part of the Musica Juventutis series.
Bernhard Mitmesser has been first prize-winner of several national competitions. In 2009 he received the second prize at the Austrian competition Gradus ad Parnassum and in 2012 he received the U21 special prize of the Bavarian Radio at the ARD International Music Competition.