Blunier General Music Director of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra
The Swiss conductor Stefan Blunier will be General Music Director of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra for three years from the 2026/2027 season. He succeeds Axel Kober in the position.
Stefan Blunier studied piano, horn, composition and conducting in Bern and at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen. He worked as a Kapellmeister in Mainz, Augsburg and Mannheim before taking up chief conductor and GMD positions in Darmstadt, Bonn, Brussels and, most recently since 2021, Porto. He has held a professorship for symphonic music at the Mannheim University of Music since 2017.
Founded in 1877, the orchestra gave regular concerts as the Duisburg Symphony Orchestra in Duisburg's Mercatorhalle until it was demolished in 2003. It then played in Duisburg's Theater am Marientor. In April 2007, the new Mercatorhalle was completed in the Stadtpalais, where the orchestra has since been based under its new name.
