Wenzel Fuchs

Wenzel Fuchs actually wanted to become a ski racer, but then he broke his foot and couldn’t train any more. As a clarinettist in a wind ensemble, the Innsbruck native had the opportunity to play for an oboist from the Vienna Philharmonic who was on holiday in the area just then. “I played for him in my parents’ sports shop, and he said I should come to Vienna. So I went there,” Wenzel Fuchs recalls. The principal clarinet of the Berliner Philharmoniker studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where he initially played as a substitute with the Vienna Philharmonic. He began his professional career as principal clarinettist of the Vienna Volksoper and the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra before joining the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1993. In addition to his work with the orchestra, Wenzel Fuchs is active as a soloist and chamber musician, appearing with such partners as Yefim Bronfman, Emmanuel Pahud and András Schiff. He also teaches at the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker, is a visiting professor at the Geidai University in Tokyo and holds an honorary professorship at the Shanghai Conservatory. Wenzel Fuchs gives master classes throughout the world and is a professor at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.