Ursina Maria Braun & Florian Birsak
Biography Ursina Maria Braun & Florian Birsak
Ursina Maria Braun
musical career is characterised by its enormous versatility. A prizewinner of the Leipzig Bach Competition, she is active as a soloist and chamber musician as well as a solo cellist in renowned ensembles, and is also a sought-after composer.
She began her training as a junior student with Thomas Grossenbacher at the Zurich University of the Arts, where she also received composition lessons from Andreas Nick. Her Bachelor's and Master's studies with Clemens Hagen and Heinrich Schiff then took her to the Mozarteum University Salzburg and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Additional studies with Reinhard Goebel deepened her interest in historical performance practice, which she has made an essential focus of her work.
During her studies, Ursina Maria Braun received numerous awards, including first prize at the international CONCORSO 12 Enrico Mainardi in 2012, the study award of the Migros Kulturprozent in 2016, and second prize and the audience prize at the International Bach Competition Leipzig. During the coronavirus pandemic, she initiated an innovative concert series on the Kapuzinerberg in Salzburg and won second prize at the Musica Antiqua Competition in Bruges in 2021.
With her chamber music partners such as Kit Armstrong, Denes Varjon, Pietro de Maria, Florian Birsak, Reinhard Goebel, Julian Prégardien, Dmitry Smirnov, Lorenza Borrani, Alfredo Bernardini, Franziska Hölscher, Erich Höbarth, and Dorothea Oberlinger, she has performed at festivals such as Styriarte Graz, Carinthischer Sommer, Thüringer Bachwochen, Bachwochen Ansbach, Suoni delle Dolomiti, Stresa Festival, and Mittelfest and has already performed in concert halls such as the Wiener Musikverein, Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Wigmore Hall in London, and Konzerthaus Berlin. As principal cellist of the Concentus Musicus founded by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, she is part of one of the most respected ensembles for historical performance practice. In addition, she performs as a principal cellist with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and the Munich Chamber Orchestra.
As a composer, Ursina Maria Braun receives commissions from the Musikpodium Zürich, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Swiss Chamber Concerts, Azahar Ensemble, Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, and Sinfonietta de Lausanne. The Salzburg-based cellist regularly passes on her enthusiasm for music in projects with students at the Zurich University of the Arts, the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, and the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana and leads a cello class at the Tirolean State Conservatory in Innsbruck.
Florian Birsaks
Florian'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.
