Gregor Bühl

INTRODUCTION

Gregor Bühl gained international attention when he launched the highly-acclaimed new Ring des Nibelungen cycle at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm. His interpretation was enthusiastically received by audience and press alike. The entire production was recorded and broadcast by Swedish Television and is available on DVD. In Stockholm, he has also conducted Tristan und Isolde, Samson et Dalila, Werther, and Figaro. He returned to the Royal Opera for a new production of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Trouble in Tahiti by Leonard Bernstein.

RECENT AND FUTURE HIGHLIGHTS

In recent seasons Gregor Bühl has appeared regularly at the Royal Opera in Copenhagen, the Hamburg State Opera, and the Stuttgart State Opera in Fidelio, Madama Butterfly, Trovatore, Cenerentola, Rigoletto, Pique Dame, Elisir d’amore, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and Tosca.

He also has a regular collaboration with the Staatstheater Hannover, where he has directed several new productions in recent seasons, including the German premiere of Manfred Trojahn’s Orest and a highly acclaimed production of Verdi’s Traviata.

In 2021, he conducted the highly acclaimed world premiere of Steward Copeland’s opera Electric Saint at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar and led the Trondheim Symfoniorkester in Carmina Burana.

Among his future engagements are concerts with Jönköping Sinfonietta.

BIOGRAPHY

Bühl made his North American debut at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto with Fidelio and his South American debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with a production of Lehàr’s Merry Widow. Guest conducting engagements have taken him to the Opéra National de Montpellier, the Semperoper Dresden – where he conducted the rarely performed Strauss adaptation of Mozart’s Idomeneo –  the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Leipzig Opera, among others.

In recent years, Gregor Bühl has recorded Walter Braunfels’ orchestral works with the Vienna RSO and the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie for the Capriccio label. The fourth and last CD in the series was awarded the ‘Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik’.

Extensive concert engagements have taken Gregor Bühl to Germany, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and Israel, where he has worked with the radio symphony orchestras of Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg, Saarbrücken, Hilversum, and Hanover, as well as the Finnish and Danish radio orchestras, among others. Other conducting engagements have taken him to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, and the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland Pfalz.

His first conducting engagement was as assistant to Gerd Albrecht at the Hamburg State Opera, before moving to the Staatstheater Hannover as Principal Conductor in 1995. During the six years he was associated with this house, he conducted a wide-ranging repertoire that included not only the great German and Italian operas, but also important contemporary works.

DISCOGRAPHY

Mr. Bühl’s discography includes, among others:

• the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik award winning recording Walter Braunfels: Prelude from »Don Gil von den grünen Hosen«, op.35; Divertimento op.42; Serenade op.20, Ariel’s Song op.18. w. ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, CapriccioNR (Naxos) (2021)
• the Weber/Kurpinski/Crusell Clarinet concertos with Sharon Kam and ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orfeo (2020)
• Walter Braunfels: Fantastical Apparitions of a Theme by Hector Berlioz Op. 25 / Sinfonia brevis, op. 6 with Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Capriccio (2019)
• Walter Braunfels WERKE FÜR KLAVIER UND ORCHESTER with Tatjana Blome and the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Capriccio (2018)
• Walter Braunfels CARNEVALS OUVERTÜRE / HÖLDERLIN GESÄNGE with B. Buntrock, P.-A. Edelmann and the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Capriccio (2017)
• the award winning recording of American clarinet music with Sharon Kam and the London Symphony Orchestra, available on Warner classics (2002).

EDUCATION

Gregor Bühl began his conducting studies at the Düsseldorf Musikhochschule with Wolfgang Trommer. He participated in master classes with Ferdinand Leitner, Gary Bertini and Gerd Albrecht.

Since April 2016 Mr. Bühl is a professor at the Academy of Opera in Oslo.

AWARDS

In 1995, Mr. Bühl was awarded the second prize at the Nikolai Malko Conductors Competition in Copenhagen and in 1993 the culture prize of Berenberg Bank in Hamburg. He also received scholarships from “Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben” and “DAAD”.