Curriculum vitae:
Thomas-Michael Auner is an Austrian-Russian cellist. He became a notable talent at a very young age, already performing at the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Wiener Musikverein with 8 years. He started learning piano with his mother Irina, who is from Russia and studied piano in St. Petersburg, and cello with his father Diethard, who is an acclaimed Austrian cellist and a cello teacher in Vienna.
Thomas-Michael won numerous prizes at Austrian-wide and international youth competitions before he began his studies at the University of Music and Arts in Vienna at the age of 15.
Thomas-Michael Auner is winner and finalist in numerous international Cello competitions, such as the Liezen Cello Competition, the Mendelsohn-Bartholdy Competition Berlin, the Richard-Strauss-Competition, the International Cello Competition Antonio Janigro in Porec, Croatia, the Gradus ad Parnassum competition in Austria and was a semifinalist in the Queen Elisabeth competition in Brussels in spring 2017. He was granted on this occasion the famous Giovanni Grancino Cello “ex Piatti/Dunlop” from the Austrian Nationalbank.
2016 he was awarded a prize of the Mozartgemeinde Vienna and in March 2017 he made his debut concert together with his pianist Maximilian Flieder among other recitals in the Wiener Musikverein, which furthermore helped establishing himself an artistic career and perform recitals throughout Europe in the past seasons.
He took part in numerous festivals, such as the Rome Chambermusic Festival, the Podium Festival Mödling, the Wörthersee Classics Festival and the ISA Summer festival. Thomas also appeared as a soloist with many orchestras such as the Orchestre Royal du Chambre de Wallonie, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, the Sinfonietta Baden, the RTSH Orchestra Tirana or the Ensemble Neue Streicher Vienna.
He studied with Gustav Rivinius at the HfM Saarbrücken in Germany and continued his studies with Natalia Gutman at the Vienna Conservatory (MUK), from where he graduated with distinction in spring 2018. He wrote his master thesis on the development of the cello as a solo instrument in early 18th century Vienna.
In 2015 his first CD Invitation to Dance, a collection of dance music throughout the centuries from Bach to Piazzolla has appeared in collaboration with the Austrian label Gramola and received high acclaim by the critics.
Since spring 2017 he is teaching at his own class in the Prayner Conservatory of Music in Vienna and is currently under contract by the Vienna State Opera/Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Thomas-Michael Auner plays on a contemporary instrument made by the Austrian Violin maker Roland Schueler, built in 2018.