The clarinettist Daniel Ottensamer performs at the world’s most important music venues both as a soloist and chamber musician and in his position as principal clarinet of the Vienna Philharmonic, and collaborates with famous orchestras and major artists.
In the 2025/26 season he performed as a soloist with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst and gave the world premiere of Stephan Koncz’s new Clarinet Concerto. He also performed Mozart’s Clarinet Concert with the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra under Ton Koopman and appeared at the Tonhalle in Zurich with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra under Thomas Zehetmair.
Past artistic highlights have included solo performances with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and the NHK Symphony Orchestra under renowned conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Adam Fischer, Manfred Honeck, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti and Andris Nelsons.
As a chamber musician he has collaborated with artists including Daniel Barenboim, Barbara Bonney, Isabelle Faust, Thomas Hampson, Mischa Maisky, Bobby McFerrin, András Schiff, Heinrich Schiff and the Hagen Quartet. In the 2025/26 season he gave concerts in France and in Schwetzingen with his long-term artistic partners, the cellist Stephan Koncz and the pianist Christoph Traxler.
He is a member of the cult ensemble Philharmonix, in which musicians from the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics — among others — come together to give virtuoso performances that transcend all genre boundaries. This summer the ensemble appeared at the Grafenegg Festival. In 2018 Philharmonix was awarded an OPUS Klassik.
Daniel Ottensamer has recorded several albums of major clarinet concertos, released by Sony Classical. Together with Stephan Koncz and Christoph Traxler he has also made a seven-CD recording of the clarinet trio repertory, released in 2022 by Decca. In June 2025 he released an arrangement by Stephan Koncz of Brahms’s two sonatas — for clarinet and orchestra — with Pentatone.
Daniel Ottensamer was born in Vienna and studied in his home city with Johann Hindler. In 2006 he became a member of the Vienna Philharmonic, and was promoted to principal clarinet in 2009.
