Baldur Brönnimann is a conductor of great flexibility with a broad-minded approach to programme-building and music-making, who is sought after widely across the globe. He is deeply committed to making classical music relevant in the 21st century, and as such is active as both a commissioner of new works and as a curator of festivals and series, including the Desclasficados project in Madrid, a concert series giving opportunities to young up-and-coming artists. He has a strong commitment to outreach and educational work, working whenever possible with youth orchestras, such as the Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie.
Brönnimann has conducted significant performances of major works by composers such as Ligeti, Romitelli, Boulez, Vivier, Schnebel and Zimmerman at festivals such as Wien Modern, Darmstadt, Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center and the BBC Proms and is held in the highest regard by some of today’s most eminent living composers including Birtwistle, Chin, Lachenmann, Saariaho. In recent seasons he has conducted the Seoul Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, WDR Symphony, Barcelona Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony, Aurora and Munich Chamber orchestras amongst others. In the 2021/22 season, highlights include his return to Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Klangforum Wien, and debuts with the Tampere Philharmonic (Finland) and at the Montreux Festival with Emmanuel Pahud and the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana.
In the opera house, Brönnimann has conducted Ligeti Le Grand Macabre at English National Opera, Komische Oper Berlin and Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires) in both the La Fura dels Baus and Barrie Kosky productions, John Adams Death of Klinghoffer at English National Opera, Kaija Saariaho L’amour de loin at the Bergen Festival and Norwegian Opera, and Romitelli Index of Metals with Barbara Hannigan at the Theater an der Wien. At Argentina’s Teatro Colón he has also conducted Schoenberg Erwartung, Szymanowski Hagith, and Helmut Lachenmann The Little Match Girl with the composer as narrator and Zimmermann Die Soldaten.
Brönnimann is Principal Conductor of the Basel Sinfonietta with whom he continues to conduct programmes combining contemporary and unknown works with standard repertoire in typically unexpected ways, on a constant quest to challenge classical conventions and to explore new avenues for orchestral performance. In 2020 he concluded his hugely successful six-year tenure as Principal Conductor of the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música, where he continues to return each season. Between 2011–2015 he was Artistic Director of Norway’s leading contemporary music ensemble BIT20, and from 2008–2012 Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia in Bogotá.
Born in Switzerland, Brönnimann trained at the City of Basel Music Academy and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where he was subsequently appointed Visiting Tutor in Conducting, and he now lives in Madrid.