The viola player Michael Strasser was born in Grieskirchen (Lower Austria) and began violin lessons at the age of seven with his grandfather, Hubert Kroisamer Sr. From 1990 he studied at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz with Boris Kuschnir, transferring to Albert Fischer after having twice won the Austrian youth music competition Prima la Musica (in 1992 and 1994). In 1999 he obtained his Matura from the Akademisches Gymnasium in Linz, and went on to study viola at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Hans Peter Ochsenhofer.
Following a successful audition for the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera he joined the viola section in September 2003. In 2005 he was accepted into the Vienna Philharmonic.
As a chamber musician Michael Strasser performs in the Seifert Quartet and in Ensemble Wien.
In 2008 he taught viola at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and conducted a rehearsal of the college orchestra. He has also taught at the Ossiach Orchestra Academy and the Anton Bruckner Private University.
Michael Strasser plays a violin by Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza (Milan, 1781), kindly loaned to him by the Sparkasse Neuhofen Bank.
