BERLIN VISITING

Daishin Kashimoto, violin, was accepted, at the tender age of seven, as the youngest student to ever attend Julliard School’s pre-college program in New York. He is the winner of numerous competitions, such as the Menuhin Junior Competition (1993) and the Long-Thibaud Competition (1996). As first concert master of the Berlin Philharmonic, Daishin Kashimoto plays a wide repertoire ranging from classical to new music. He has performed with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, under conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, Yehudi Menuhin, and Paavo Järvi, among others. As a chamber musician, Daishin Kashimoto has appeared alongside Martha Argerich, Yuja Wang, Emmanuel Pahud, Itamar Golan, and many others, while with Konstantin Lifschitz he has released a CD featuring Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas for the Warner Classics label. Daishin Kashimoto plays on a Guarneri del Gesu 1744 de Beriot, on loan from the Asuka Corporation and its chairman Mr. Hikaru Shimura.

Andreas Ottensamer, clarinet, has performed as a soloist in numerous venues around the globe with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, among others, under such conductors as Mariss Jansons, Sir Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Harding, and Lorenzo Viotti. Since 2020, Andreas Ottensamer has taken the podium as a conductor, performing with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Among the artists with whom he collaborates as a chamber musician are Yuja Wang, Leonidas Kavakos, Janine Jansen, Lisa Batiashvili, Gautier Capuçon, and Sol Gabetta. Andreas Ottensamer is Artistic Director of the Bürgenstock Chamber Music Festival in Lucerne. At the tender age of ten, he began studying cello at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, before moving to clarinet. Since 2011 he has served as Principal Clarinetist of the Berlin Philharmonic. As an exclusive artist for the Deutsche Grammophon label, for his latest release Blue Hour, he recorded works by Weber, Mendelssohn, and Brahms with the Berlin Philharmonic, under Mariss Jansons, and with pianist Yuja Wang.

Jose Gallardo, piano, is one of the most sought-after chamber music pianists. He started playing the piano at the age of five at the Buenos Aires Conservatory and continued his studies at the University of Mainz under Professor Poldi Mildner. Jose Gallardo has won numerous national and international awards. He has performed at numerous music festivals, such as the Chamber Music Festival in Lockenhaus (Austria), the Verbier Festival, the Lucerne Festival, Chopin and his Europe in Warsaw, among others. As a chamber musician, Jose Gallardo has collaborated with Gidon Kremer, Vilde Frang, Barnabás Kelemen, Linus Roth, Janusz Wawrowski, and many others. He has performed in numerous venues, including the Berliner Philharmonie, the Zurich Tonhalle, and the Wigmore Hall in London, among others. Jose Gallardo has released several CDs for labels such as EMI, Warner, Deutsche Grammophon, and Hänssler, as well as recorded music for radio and television. Together with Andreas Ottensamer, he is Artistic Director of the Bürgenstock Chamber Music Festival in Lucerne. Since 2008, Jose Gallardo has been teaching at the Leopold Mozart Center of the University of Augsburg.