Florian Birsak
Florian Birsak's first musical steps took him through the sound world of the Baroque. As a child, he exclusively played the harpsichord and clavichord, and he still regards the music from Frescobaldi to Bach as his musical home. Birsak first began his
Biography
Florian Birsak's first musical steps took him through the sound world of the Baroque. As a child, he exclusively played the harpsichord and clavichord, and he still regards the music from Frescobaldi to Bach as his musical home.
Birsak first began his training in his native city of Salzburg and continued it at the University of Music and Theatre Munich. He received important inspiration for his artistic maturation from formative personalities such as Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Kenneth Gilbert, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Prizes followed at international competitions such as the Festival of Flanders in Bruges and the Mozart Competition in Salzburg. In 2003, together with the cellist Isolde Hayer, he received the August Everding Prize of the Munich Concert Society.
An essential part of his musical and scholarly interest lies in the appropriate execution of the figured bass in all its stylistic facets.
As a soloist and chamber musician, Birsak has performed in ensembles such as the Camerata Salzburg, Hofkapelle München, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, L’Orfeo Barockorchester, Zefiro Barockorchester, Armonico Tributo, Oman Consort, Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, Munich Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Bern, and Concentus Musicus Wien under conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Roger Norrington, Simon Rattle, Sigiswald Kuijken, Giovanni Antonini, Christopher Hogwood, Ivor Bolton, Thomas Hengelbrock, and many others.
Recently, Florian Birsak has increasingly focused on solo performance as well as on his own chamber music projects with selected programmatic objectives. In 2013, he was appointed professor of harpsichord at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, and he also serves as acting head of the department of Early Music and initiated and directed the “Innsbruck Baroque” academy, which offered master classes and workshops in the field of historical performance practice from 2014 to 2019. In 2021, he joined the Baroque programme of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and has also led a fortepiano class at the Mozarteum Salzburg since 2023.
Florian Birsak | pianoforte