Florian Opahle
Florian Opahle (born 1983) is a German rock musician, best known for his work with progressive rock artist Ian Anderson of band Jethro Tull, with whom he played from 2003 to 2019. From 2017 to 2019 he was the lead guitarist of Anderson's revived version of Jethro Tull. Early career. Opahle grew up in Rosenheim. He started learning classical guitar at the age of five, and was later trained on the electric guitar. In 2001 and 2002, he attended master classes with Masayuki Kato, in 2002 he passed his high school diploma. Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull . In 2003 he started working with Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull. He appeared in Europe, North and South America and Asia on and played with musicians such as Al di Meola, Greg Lake and Leslie Mandoki. He accompanied the singer Masha on her Germany tour. From 2007 to 2008 he studied music arrangement and composition at the German Pop Academy. Opahle took part in several tours with Anderson instead of longtime Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre, including on projects in which pieces by Jethro Tull were played with orchestral accompaniment. With Anderson and other musicians, he recorded the albums "Thick  as a Brick 2" (2012) and "Homo Erraticus" (2014). From 2017, Anderson toured under the name of Jethro Tull with his regular backing musicians. Opahle is also active as a studio musician and producer, among others for Alexandra Stan. At times he devotes himself to flamenco music. Since 2017, he has been running a professional recording studio with his wife called RedBoxx Studios in the south of Germany.