Stefan Blunier, conductor

Stefan Blunier studied piano, horn, composition and conducting in his native city Bern and at Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. While still a student he founded the Ensemble for New Music Essen, and he performed internationally as a pianist and accompanist in recitals and radio productions.  His education has followed a classical way through different Opera houses. After positions in Mainz, Augsburg and as associate chief conductor in Mannheim, he was Music Director of Staatstheater Darmstadt from 2001/02 until the end of the year 2008.

Early in his career, the prize winner of several competitions (Besançon 1990, Malko 1992 in Kopenhagen) has been invited to concerts all over Europe. He has conducted the main German broadcast Orchestras as well as Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Beethovenorchester Bonn, Staatsphilharmonie Ludwigshafen, Duisburger Sinfoniker, and several orchestras in Denmark, Belgium, Korea, France and Switzerland. As an opera conductor he has held engagements in Munich, Hamburg, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Berlin (Komische Oper and Deutsche Oper), Montpellier, Oslo and Bern.

His special interest for the late 19^th and early 20^th Century as well as for contemporary music is mainly documented in his opera and concert programs in Darmstadt, where he has conducted such operas as Das Spielwerk (Schreker), Oedipus der Tyrann and Antigone (Orff), Pélleas et Mélisande (Debussy), the first German productions of L`amour de loin (Saariaho) and Der Rattenfänger (Cerha), as well as the cyclic performance of Wagner’s operas. Besides the customary concert repertoire his main interest lies on such composers as Zemlinsky, Pfitzner, Reger and Busoni, as well as Schönberg and Sibelius. 

Blunier has recorded several CDs for the Sony, CPO, Dabringhaus & Grimm labels and just recently recorded a recital album with Bo Skovhus.

Since 2009, January 1^st Blunier has been holding the position of Chief Musical Director of the city of Bonn. Thus, he became at the same time chief conductor of Beethoven Orchestra Bonn and of Opera Bonn. With the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn he performed i.a. at Philharmonie Köln, at the Konzertgebouw Amsterdam, further plans include extended tours to neighbouring and faraway foreign countries as well as a series of CD-recordings.

Since the 2008/09 season, there has been a strong bond between Stefan Blunier and Komische Oper Berlin: Following a series of Prokofiev’s “Love of the three Oranges” and a concert in 2009/10, the current season will see further concerts and repertory performances, as well as a new production of Poulenc’s “Dialogue des Carmelites” and Bizet’s “Carmen”. Stefan Blunier recently made his acclaimed debut at English National Opera with the original version of Henze’s “Elegy for young lovers”. Future engagements will include Strauss’ “Daphne” at Frankfurt Opera, a world premiere of Haas’ “Bluthaus” at Schwetzingen Festival and “Tannhäuser” at Semperoper Dresden.

Moreover, starting with the current season of 2010/11 Stefan Blunier will be principal guest conductor of Orchestre National de Belgique/Brussels for the three years to come. 

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