Manuela Wiesler was born in Brazil in 1955, the daughter of an Austrian cameraman and a ballerina. In 1957 she moved with her family to Vienna, where she entered the Academy of Music in 1967, later studying in Paris. In 1973 she moved with her husband to Iceland and in 1976 won the Nordic Chamber Music Competition in Helsinki. Further study with James Galway was followed by success in the Copenhagen Biennale in 1900, since when she has enjoyed a career as a soloist including in her repertoire Carl Nielsen's flute concerto, which she has performed in Copenhagen.