F
or more than two decades, FLORIAN BERNER has been a welcome guest in all of the world’s major music centers. As cellist and founding member of the Hugo Wolf Quartet, he has taken part in extended concert tours throughout Europe, Asia and North and South America, and has appeared in such renowned concert venues as Carnegie Hall (New York), Cité des Arts (Paris), Berlin Philharmonie, Suntory Hall (Tokyo) and the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival.
Florian Berner’s numerous accolades include a Rising Star award, the Special Prize of the Vienna Philharmonic and the European Chamber Music Prize. His extensive oeuvre as a recording artist includes CDs released by Gramola, Extraplatte, VMS, cpo and CamJazz.
In 2016, he co-founded the Alban Berg Ensemble Vienna (ABEW) with support from the Alban Berg Foundation, who also granted permission for the ensemble’s name. In addition to its international concert appearances, the ABEW performs a regular concert cycle in the Brahms Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein and holds its own chamber music festival – the BERGfrühling in Ossiach. The Alban Berg Ensemble’s debut CD was released in July 2020 by Deutsche Grammophon.
Florian Berner holds master classes at numerous American universities, at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest. He has served as a lecturer for the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra (Venezuela), Superar (Vienna), the Norwegian Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Ötztaler Kulturwochen festival, among many others. Since 2013, Mr. Berner has held a professorship for cello and chamber music at the Gustav Mahler Private University of Music in Klagenfurt, Austria.
Florian Berner plays a cello by Nicolo Gagliano (Naples, 1819).