Wenzel Maria Fuchs (born 1963 in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

, Austria) is an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

clarinetist The clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches. The clarinet family is the largest woodw ...

. He studied

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

at the Innsbruck Conservatory with Walter Kefer and at the

Vienna Music Academy The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university established in 1817 located in Vienna. With a student body of over three thousand, it is the largest institution of its kind in Austria, and one of t ...

with

Peter Schmidl Peter Schmidl (10 January 1941 – 1 February 2025) was an Austrian clarinetist. Life and career Schmidl was born in Olomouc, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia on 10 January 1941. He studied clarinet with Rudolf Jettel at the University of Mus ...

. He has performed with the

Vienna State Opera The Vienna State Opera (, ) is a historic opera house and opera company based in Vienna, Austria. The 1,709-seat Renaissance Revival venue was the first major building on the Vienna Ring Road. It was built from 1861 to 1869 following plans by ...

, the

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Vienna Philharmonic (VPO; ) is an orchestra that was founded in 1842 and is considered to be one of the finest in the world. The Vienna Philharmonic is based at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria. Its members are selected from the orchestra of ...

, the

Vienna Volksoper The Vienna Volksoper (''Volksoper'' or ''Vienna People's Opera'') is an opera house in Vienna, Austria. It produces three hundred performances of twenty-five German language productions of opera, operetta, musicals, and ballet, during an annual s ...

, and the

Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (German: ''ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien'', or RSO Wien) is the orchestra of the Austrian national broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF). Unlike most other Austrian orchestras, the RSO Wien has a sub ...

. Fuchs became clarinet soloist of the Vienna Volksoper at the age of 19 and five years later solo clarinetist of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and was appointed solo clarinetist of the

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra The Berlin Philharmonic () is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. Throughout the 20th century, the orchestra was led by conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler (1922� ...

in 1993. Wenzel Fuchs holds a professorship at the

Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin The in Berlin, Germany, is one of the leading universities of music in Europe. It was established in East Berlin in 1950 as the () because the older (now the Berlin University of the Arts) was in West Berlin. After the death in 1962 of one of ...

, since October 2008 and teaches in the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Orchestra Academy. He has been a guest professor at Sakuyou Music University in

Okayama is the prefectural capital, capital Cities of Japan, city of Okayama Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of Japan. The Okayama metropolitan area, centered around the city, has the largest urban employment zone in the Chugoku region of western J ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

holds an honorary professorship at the Shanghai Conservatory, and gives master classes all over the world. Fuchs is a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Soloists ensemble, the Berlin Philharmonic Octet ensemble, the Philarmonische Freunde Wien-Berlin ensemble, Berliner Philarmonisches Bläserensemble, the Metropolis Ensemble, and the Super World Orchestra. Wenzel Fuchs has been awarded a Prize of the Austrian Ministry for Science and Art and several prizes in the German national youth competition "Jugend musiziert".

Discography

*''Martinu, Nielsen, Koechlin: Serenade'', with the Baborák Ensemble. Supraphon SU 3998-2, June 2009. *''Reger: Clarinet Quintet, Op. 146 and String Quartet, Op. 109'', with the Berlin Philarmonia Quartet. NAXOS, 8.554510, 2001.

References

1963 births Austrian male musicians Living people Players of the Berlin Philharmonic Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin 21st-century Austrian clarinetists {{Clarinetist-stub