Karl Leister

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Karl Leister is a world-renowned classical clarinet-player. He was born in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. He learnt the clarinet from his father (also a clarinet player) at a very early age and later studied at the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin. Whilst still a teenager he was accepted to join the Komische Oper Berlin under Vaclav Neumann and Walter Felenstein as a solo clarinet-player.

He joined the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1959 under Herbert von Karajan – this productive musical association was to last for thirty years. During this time he was internationally recognized as a major soloist and chamber musician. Leister was also one of the founding members of the “Blaser der Berliner Philharmoniker”/Berlin Soloists which made masterful recordings – among them of “Brahms’s, Clarinet Quintet in B Minor Op. 115”. He also co-founded the Ensemble Wien-Berlin.

The creation of the Herbert von Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra has permitted Karl Leister to teach music to a whole new generation of musicians.

Leister is currently a professor at the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler, Berlin [1]