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Basel Chamber Orchestra

Conductor

Clarinettist (+2)

Andreas Ottensamer

Orchestra

Pianist (+3)

Ky­ohei So­ri­ta

Piano

Hong Kong City Hall

The Basel Chamber Orchestra is deeply rooted in the city of Basel – with its two subscription series in the Stadtcasino Basel as well as its own rehearsal and performance venue, Don Bosco Basel. With world tours and more than 60 concerts per season, the Orchestra is a popular guest at international festivals and in Europe’s most important concert halls.

As the first orchestra to be awarded the Swiss Music Prize in 2019, the Basel Chamber Orchestra stands out for its excellence and diversity as well as for its depth and consistency.  Its interpretations are deeply immersed into the relevant thematic and compositional worlds: in the past with the “Basel Beethoven” or with Heinz Holliger for the “Schubert Cycle”.  Or as with the long-term project “Haydn2032”, the study and performance of all Joseph Haydn's symphonies up to the year 2032 under the direction of Principal Guest Conductor Giovanni Antonini and together with the Ensemble Il Giardino Armonico.  Since the 2022–23 season, the Orchestra, under the direction of early music specialist Philippe Herreweghe, has dedicated itself to all of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's symphonies.  The Orchestra frequently collaborates with selected soloists such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Franco Fagioli, Isabelle Faust and Kristian Bezuidenhout.  The Orchestra presents its broad repertoire under the artistic direction of the first violins and the baton of selected conductors such as Nodoka Okisawa, Heinz Holliger, René Jacobs and Pierre Bleuse.

The concert programmes are as diverse as the 48 musicians and range from early music on historical instruments to contemporary music and historically informed interpretations.  An important element of the work is the future-oriented education programmes in large-scale participatory projects involving creative exchange with children and young people.

The creative work of the Orchestra is documented by an extensive and award-winning discography.

The Clariant Foundation has been the presenting sponsor of the Basel Chamber Orchestra since 2019.

Andreas Ottensamer is considered one of the leading instrumentalists and performs as a clarinet soloist in the major concert halls around the world with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under Mariss Jansons, Sir Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Harding and Lorenzo Viotti.

In 2021, Ottensamer gave his debut as a conductor and has been awarded the Neeme Järvi Prize of the Gstaad Conducting Academy.  He studied conducting with Nicolás Pasquet and took masterclasses with Riccardo Muti, Jaap van Zweden and Johannes Schlaefli.  He has assisted François-Xavier Roth with the London Symphony Orchestra.

In the season 2022–23, Ottensamer made his Asian conducting debut with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and KBS Symphony Orchestra, and collaborated with orchestras such as the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, Gulbenkian Orchestra and Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra.  In the season 2023–24, he is giving his debuts with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, Basel Chamber Orchestra, etc.

Ottensamer has an exclusive recording partnership with Deutsche Grammophon since 2013, making him the first ever clarinettist on the Yellow Label.  For his album Blue Hour, he partnered with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Mariss Jansons and received his second Opus Klassik Award as "Instrumentalist of the Year".

Ottensamer is the Artistic Director of the Bürgenstock Festival in Switzerland.  Since 2011, he has held the position of Principal Clarinettist with the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Kyohei Sorita won the Second Prize in the 18th International Chopin Piano Competition in 2021, more than half a century since a Japanese won this same prize.

In 2020, Sorita gave his debuts in Paris and at the Musikverein Wien in Vienna to much acclaim.  His orchestra collaborations include the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Tonkünstler Orchester, RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and he played under the baton of conductors like Robin Ticciati, Sebastian Weigle, Yutaka Sado, Andrea Battistoni, Andrey Boreyko and Mikhail Pletnev.

In 2012, Sorita became known to a wider audience overnight when he won the First Prize, the Audience Prize and three other special prizes at the 81st Japan Music Competition.  He subsequently studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and then at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.  In addition to invitations to St. Petersburg, where he made his debuts with a solo recital and with the Mariinsky Orchestra as part of the Russian International Music Festival, his debut recital at the sold-out Suntory Hall in Tokyo followed with great success in 2016.

Since then, Sorita has become one of the most sought-after pianists on the Japanese concert scene.  He plays chamber music regularly and is the Founder, Producer and Conductor of the Japan National Orchestra.  In 2019, he launched his own label.  He also produces a music salon “Solistiade”, connecting young musicians and music lovers.

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