Stefan Blunier, first guest conductor

The Swiss conductor Stefan Blunier (born in 1964) first made a name for himself at international competitions for young conductors in Besançon in 1990 and in Copenhagen in 1992. He built up experience in a number of German opera houses before becoming Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Darmstadt opera house (from 2001 to 2008), where he showed a particular interest in the 20th-century repertoire and in contemporary music.

Blunier has also worked with the German radio orchestras and with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He has conducted opera in prestigious opera houses in Germany and Switzerland and at English National Opera. Since August 2008 he has been General Music Director of the City of Bonn, where he is Chief Conductor of the Beethoven Orchestra and Bonn Opera. In the 2010-11 season he has become Principal Guest Conductor of the NOB.