Florian Birsak

Florian Birsak was born in Salzburg, and has made a name for himself as a soloist on the harpsichord, fortepiano and clavichord. He received his musical training in his home town and in Munich. Important figures in his artistic development included Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Kenneth Gilbert and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

An essential part of his musical and academic interest lies in the adequate execution of the basso continuo in all its stylistic facets. He has performed both as a soloist and as a continuo player with ensembles such as the Camerata Salzburg, the Hofkapelle Munich, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, L’Orfeo Barockorchester, the Baroque orchestra Zefiro, Armonico Tributo, the Oman Consort, the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Camerata Bern and Concentus Musicus Wien. He has worked with conductors including Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Roger Norrington, Simon Rattle, Sigiswald Kuijken, Giovanni Antonini, Christopher Hogwood, Ivor Bolton and Thomas Hengelbrock. Recently, Florian Birsak has increasingly focused on his own solo and chamber music projects, which have special programmatic objectives.

He has won numerous prizes in competitions such as the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg and the MA Competition at the Festival van Vlaanderen in Bruges. In 2003 he and the cellist Isolde Hayer won the August Everding Music Competition of the Münchener Konzertverein.

In 2013 Florian Birsak was appointed a harpsichord professor at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. He also initiated and directed the Innsbruck Baroque Academy, which from 2014 to 2019 offered masterclasses and workshops in historical performance practice. Since 2021 he is a member of the Baroque programme of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena.