About

Baldur Brönnimann regularly conducts the major orchestras and new music ensembles around the world and is now increasingly sought after in the opera house. Renowned for his mastery of complex contemporary scores, Brönnimann is held in the highest regard by many of today’s foremost composers. In 2008 he was appointed Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, and in 2011 he was announced as the new Artistic Director of Norway’s BIT20 Ensemble.

Brönnimann made his debut with English National Opera in 2008, and returned to open their 2009/10 season with La Fura dels Baus’s production of Ligeti’s “anti anti-opera” Le Grand Macabre in 2009, which was a huge critical success; in spring 2012 he returns to ENO for another major new production. In April 2011 he makes his debut at the newly refurbished Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, for a revival of Le Grand Macabre, and in May 2011 he returns to the Bergen Festival to conduct a staged production of Stravinsky Oedipus Rex, following his debut there conducting Saariaho L’Amour de Loin in 2008.

In Europe, Brönnimann works regularly with the orchestras in the UK, Portugal and Scandinavia in particular. Debuts in the 2010/11 season include BBC National Orchestra of Wales, RTÉ Dublin and Lucerne Symphony. Return engagements include: the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in a Minimalist programme of Ives, Adams and Marshall; the Iceland Symphony with an Eastern European twentieth-century programme featuring Lutosławski Concerto for Orchestra; the Philharmonia Orchestra Music of Today series in a Kurtág programme; and Klangforum Wien at the Wiener Konzerthaus. Known for his eagerness to push artistic boundaries and to embrace projects beyond the traditional concert, Brönnimann works regularly with the London Sinfonietta on a variety of projects, including various mixed-media collaborations, and in his position as Artistic Director of the BIT20 Ensemble in Bergen, he has plans to raise the profile of this group in Norway and beyond.

Further afield, Brönnimann is a regular guest conductor with the orchestras of Australia and New Zealand, and in 2009 made his debut with the Seoul Philharmonic. In December 2010 he caught the headlines across the world when he travelled to the Middle East to conduct the newly-formed Palestine National Orchestra in Ramallah, Jerusalem and Haifa.

As Music Director with the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, Brönnimann brings his renowned fresh approach and energy to much of the core 18th and 19th century repertoire. Now at the beginning of his third season, his plans for 2011 include the first complete performance of Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin in Colombia and a performance of the original version of De Falla’s El amor brujo with the flamenco singer Carmen Linares, as part of the third annual Symphonic Festival that he inaugurated. This season will also see collaborations with Leipzig Ballet and the Chilean National Ballet, as well as with soloists such as Juan Diego Flórez, Gabriela Montero and Benjamin Schmid.

Committed to his work with young musicians, Brönnimann last year established the Colombian National Youth Orchestra and has initiated a whole range of education activities in Bogotá. In February 2011 he led an education project on Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring together with the National University of Colombia’s Music Conservatory. He is always eager to incorporate educational elements into his engagements, and his presentation skills have won him great acclaim all over the world.

Brönnimann trained at the Basel Music Academy and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where he was subsequently appointed Visiting Tutor in Conducting.

March 2011