Oliver Shermacher

"Shermacher evokes a spherical weightlessness and transfers the tension to the audience, as one would expect only from first-class musicians." - Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung

Oliver Shermacher is a multi-award winning clarinettist known for his virtuosic, unique and eccentric performances. Oliver won the 2022 Aeolus International Wind Competition and received the Audience Award, and now lives between Australia and Germany performing as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral clarinettist. 

Oliver has performed as a soloist with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Apex Ensemble, Vogtland Philharmonie, Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie and was Artist in Residence with the Willoughby Symphony Orchestra, with whom he premiered the Alice Chance Clarinet Concerto. As a chamber musician he performs regularly at festivals, such as Nicolas Altstaedt's Lockenhaus Festival in summer 2024, as well as the Schleswig Holstein, Kissinger, Rheingau and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festivals. Oliver is a winner of the Australian Freedman Fellowship and a finalist in the ABC Young Performers Award, where he also received the Audience Award. He has played as Principal Clarinet with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Stuttgart Kammerorchester, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Opera Australia Orchestra, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra as well as a guest with the SWR Symphony Orchestra and Australian World Orchestra. Oliver has been a member of the Freiburg Philharmonisches Orchester on bass clarinet since the 2024/2025 season.

Oliver has commissioned many composers to write pieces for clarinet that combine theater, electronics, dance and movement. He has created many solo performances that combine these elements into immersive theatrical installations. He also works closely with the Australian Youth Orchestra to develop creative education projects, with a particular focus on students with disabilities. He plays klezmer and jazz as well as historical clarinets and in his spare time he enjoys cooking, reading and listening to Cat Stevens and Leonard Cohen. 

He completed his Bachelor of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium with Francesco Celata and his Masters at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg with Kilian Herold and Anton Hollich.