Artistic directors

Artistic diretors

Since 2013, the Bürgenstock Festival’s artistic directors have been Andreas Ottensamer and José Gallardo.

Andreas Ottensamer, born in Vienna in 1989, has been solo clarinettist in the Berlin Philharmonic since 2011. As a solo performer he gives concerts with orchestras such as the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Kammerakademie Potsdam under Sir Simon Rattle, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andris Nelsons, Pablo Heras-Casado and Alan Gilbert. As a chamber musician he plays with the likes of Leonidas Kavakos, Janine Jansen, Murray Perahia, Sol Gabetta and Yo-Yo Ma. Since 2013 he has been an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon. For his second album “Brahms – The Hungarian Connection” he won the ECHO Klassik award in 2015. With his father Ernst, who died suddenly in 2017, and his brother Daniel he formed The Clarinotts ensemble in 2005, with a recording by the trio released in 2016. Ottensamer’s latest album “New Era” was released in 2017, again as part of the Bürgenstock Festival CD-Edition.  

The Argentine José Gallardo, born in 1970, is one of the most sought-after chamber music pianists in the world. Having studied at the conservatoire in his home city of Buenos Aires, he then studied under Prof Poldi Mildner at the University of Mainz and today works as a lecturer at the Leopold Mozart Centre in Augsburg. He has won numerous national and international awards and plays in renowned festivals and concert halls around the world such as the Tonhalle Zürich, the Musikhalle Hamburg, the Teatro della Pergola in Florence and London’s Wigmore Hall. The Süddeutsche Zeitung describes him as “a gentleman pianist with the all-rounder’s subtle, but interpretatively rich art of reduction.”