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The Swiss conductor, editor and director, Armin Brunner, studied music at the Musikhochschule Zürich from 1952 to 1960. Already during his studies there he was assistant of Hans Rosbaud at the Zürcher Opernhaus.
From 1953 to 1973 Armin Brunner led the Neue Zürcher Kammeroper ad the Schweizer Städte Oper. In 1971 he founded the Musikszenische Studio Zürich. Beside many other works Armin Brunner brought La Passion selon Sade by Sylvano Bussotti, Natascha Ungeheuer by Hans Werner Henze, Hymnen by Karl-Heinz Stockhausen at the first Swiss performance. Beyond that he organized the simultaneous and change concerts Musik für ein Gropius-Haus, the Zürich’s 3x5 Stunden-Konzert, the Ton-Werk, the documentary In Sachen Beethoven, the irritating concert Musik zwischen Gefühl und Kalkül.
During the same time, Armin Brunner’s activities included also many appearances as a guest orchestra conductor in his homeland and abroad, as well as numerous broadcast and television productions. In 1973 he stated to work for the Swiss Television DRS, first as co-worker of the editorship music and ballet; since 1979 as editorship leader. He received the Zürich Television Prize in 1983 and in 1986 - beside numerous local and foreign honours - the Golden Honour Medal of Zürich Government. In 1985 he was appointed ad Honour Doctor of the University of Osnabrueck.
Armin Brunner’s work of contemporary music is shaped on different levels, such the cyclic TV production of works by Arthur Honegger, Othmar Schoeck, Mauricio Kagel and the Heinz Spoerli ballet cycle. He created also the series Musical Meditationen, whose main goal was performance of music by important contemporary composers (such as Sölle, Küng, Hildesheimer, Drewermann, Wallraff, Biermann, Muschg) to texts of classical oratorios. Brunner’s artistic activities include also new productions of the silent movies Richard Wagner 1913 (Fröhlich), Rosenkavalier (Wiene), Carmen (Lubitsch), Nosferatu (Murnau), Panzerkreuzer Potemkin (Eisenstein) and Metropolis (Lang). He received world-wide acclaim together with Adrian Marthaler for Narrativen Music Productions they realised for the Television DRS.
For the Alte Oper Frankfurt Armin Brunner conceived and realised in 1991 the major musical event Das Frankfurter Sonoptikum – die Musik eines Jahrhunderts. In September 1993 the much acclaimed and much discussed mediale event under his direction with a new concept (Zauber und Gegenzauber) repeated. In November 1993 he got the Europäische Medien- und Kommunikationspreis lent by the Promotion Community of the European Economy. |
