Thomas-Michael Auner was a music prodigy. He started playing the cello at the age of 4 on a reconstructed viola, hence a cello in his size didn't exist. Only one year later he played his first real concerts and went to the International Youth Competition in Liezen, Austria, where he received a special prize as the youngest participant. Beside the cello, Thomas Auner began composing and playing the piano.
His mother, who is a concert pianist, played with him together in numerous concerts. Thomas Auner won several times the Austrian Youth Competition Prima la Musica, and already played a concert at the Wiener Konzerthaus at the age of 8. At the age of fourteen he traveled to Japan with the 'Youth Orchestra of Wiener Neustadt' conducted by Hanns Christian Stekel, performing multiple times the cello concerto in C major by Joseph Haydn. One year later, he made the first prize at the International Cello Competition in Liezen among 35 participants from all over the world. In June 2006, a second tour with the 'Youth Symphony Orchestra of Wiener Neustadt' took him to China, where he performed seven times the 1st cello-concerto by Camille Saint-Saens.

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Thomas-Michael Auner is one of the most talented cellists I have had the pleasure to teach in a masterclass. He is technically brilliant and a very gifted musician. I wish him all the best for is musical career...“ - Alban Gerhardt

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He began learning the cello with his father Diethard Auner and continued his studies on the University of Music and Arts of Vienna with Stefan Kropfitsch (Cellist of the Jess-Trio Wien). Since April 2010 he studies with the renowned soloist Gustav Rivinius in Saarbrücken, Germany. Masterclasses led him to artists like Heinrich Schiff, David Geringas, Giovanni Sollima, Rudolf Leopold, Alban Gerhardt, Reinhard Latzko, Trols Svane, Catalin Ilea and others.

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“Today I had the pleasure to hear Thomas Auner...” - Heinrich Schiff

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2007 Thomas Auner was a finalist of the Cello-Competition 'Gradus ad Parnassum' although he was the youngest participant, aged seventeen, performing the Haydn cello concerto in D major. One month later, he played the Haydn Concerto with the Orchestra of the 'Vienna College for musicians' conducted by of Thomas Reuter. In March 2008 he performed the same concerto with the ensemble ‘International Sinfonietta’ conducted by Konstantin Illievsky at the castle of Orth a.d. Donau. In Autumn 2008 he was a finalist and special prize-winner of the International Cello Competition Antonio Janigro in Porec, Croatia. In Spring 2010 Thomas made his debut as a soloist in the Schubertsaal at the Wiener Konzerthaus and was awarded a special prize by the European String Teachers Association. In Germany Thomas Auner recieved the first prize at the International Richard-Bellon-Competition and had the possibility to record works by Leos Janacek for the SR2 together with his pianist Henrike von Heimburg. Thomas Auner plays an exceptionally sensitive and colorful instrument by the austrian violin maker Hermann Löschberger.