Born in Vienna, cellist Florian Berner has been a guest performer in all of the world’s music centres for over two decades: concert tours have taken him to Carnegie Hall in New York, the Cité des Arts in Paris, the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, the Berlin Philharmonic, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and the Schubertiade, Colmar and Lockenhaus festivals. Florian Berner has been awarded the Vienna Philharmonic Special Prize and the European Chamber Music Prize; numerous CDs have been released by Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Gramola, Extraplatte, VMS, cpo and CamJazz. In 2023, Perfect Noise released Berner’s recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s six solo suites, which received enthusiastic reviews: ‘… breathtakingly beautiful cello suites … Bach to kneel before … a great success …’ He received an International Music Award nomination and a Supersonic Award for this recording. The enthusiastic chamber musician founded the Hugo Wolf Quartet in 1993 and the Alban Berg Ensemble Vienna in 2016, consisting of a string quartet, flute, clarinet and piano, and has been the cellist of the TrioVanBeethoven since 2024.

He spent his student years at the mdw in Vienna and with Mario Brunello in Italy. Today, he gives masterclasses at various American universities and for the IberoAcademy in Colombia. He has been a lecturer for the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra in Venezuela, for ((superar)) in Vienna and for the Norwegian Youth Symphony Orchestra. Since 2021, he has been a university professor of violoncello and chamber music at the MUK.

Florian Berner plays a cello by Nicolò Gagliano, Naples 1819.