Peter Rundel
is one of the most sought-after partners for leading European orchestras, owing to the depth of his approach to complex music of various styles and epochs as well as to his interpretive creativity.

He is regularly invited to conduct the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and the NDR, WDR, and SWR Radio Symphony Orchestras. Recent international guest appearances have included the Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera Roma, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, as well as the Tokyo Metropolitan and Taipei Symphony Ochestras.

Following his recent successes at Zurich Opera with Stefan Wirth’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and at Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden with Massenet’s Werther, this season sees Peter Rundel leading music theatre productions at the Ruhrtriennale, the Opéra National de Lyon and at Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele (world premiere of Isabel Mundry’s Im Dickicht). He has conducted the world premieres of opera productions at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera, Wiener Festwochen, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Opera Vlaanderen, Teatro Argentino La Plata, Ruhrtriennale, and Bregenz Festival, while also collaborating with respected stage directors such as Peter Konwitschny, Calixto Bieito, Philippe Arlaud, Peter Mussbach, Heiner Goebbels, Carlus Padrissa (La Fura dels Baus), and Willy Decker. His work in opera includes traditional repertoire (Die Zauberflöte at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and König Kandaules, Hansel and Gretel and The Marriage of Figaro at the Volksoper Vienna), as well as ground-breaking contemporary music theatre productions such as Stockhausen’s Donnerstag from LICHT, Massacre by Wolfgang Mitterer, the world premieres of Georg Friedrich Haas‘ Nacht and Bluthaus, Isabel Mundry’s Ein Atemzug – die Odyssee, and Emmanuel Nunes’ Das Märchen and La Douce. The spectacular production of Prometheus, which he led at the Ruhrtriennale, was awarded the Carl-Orff-Preis in 2013.

Born in Friedrichshafen, Germany, Peter Rundel studied violin with Igor Ozim and Ramy Shevelov, as well as conducting with Michael Gielen and Peter Eötvös. From 1984 until 1996 he was a violinist in Ensemble Modern, to which he has enjoyed long associations also as a conductor. He also maintains regular guest appearances with Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Collegium Novum Zürich, Ensemble intercontemporain, and the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble. Peter Rundel has been artistic director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders and was the founding artistic director of the Kammerakademie Potsdam. In January 2005, he was appointed artistic director of the Remix Ensemble Casa da Música in Porto and has since enjoyed great success with the contemporary music ensemble at important festivals throughout Europe.

Peter Rundel is also deeply committed to the education and development of young musical talent. In Porto, he founded the Remix Academy for ensemble musicians and conductors. As musical director of the Taschenopernfestival (since 2019), he also installed an academy in Salzburg to promote young conductors in the field of contemporary music theatre. In addition, he regularly teaches at international ensemble academies including the London Sinfonietta, the Ulysseus Ensemble at Manifeste Academy in Paris, the Lucerne Festival Acadamy and at Teatro alla Scala Milan.

Peter Rundel has been awarded many prizes for his recordings of 20th-century music, including the prestigious Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (Nono, Prometeo; Kyburz, Ensemble- und Orchesterwerke; Reich, City Life; Furrer, Piano Concerto; Bertrand, Vertigo), the Grand Prix du Disque (Barraqué, complete work), the Echo Klassik (Sprechgesänge with the Ensemble Musikfabrik) and a Grammy Award nomination (Heiner Goebbels, Surrogate Cities).

Hèctor Parra
He has studied composition with David Padrós and Carles Guinovart at the Barcelona Conservatorium, with Jonathan Harvey, Brian Ferneyhough and Philippe Manoury at Ircam in Paris as well as with Michael Jarrell in the Haute École de Musique of Geneva. He has the Master in Arts of the Paris-VIII University with honours. He has been Professor of Electroacoustic Composition at the Conservatory of Music of Zaragoza, in Spain, and from 2013 to 2017 he has taught composition at Ircam-Centre Pompidou.

Premieres of his works have been performed by the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Klangforum Wien, Musikfabrik, Ensembe Recherche, the Arditti Quartet, the Gürzenich Orchester Köln, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Radio Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Freiburger Barockorchester, Concerto Köln, Barcelona National Orchestra, Spain National Orchestra, among others.

He received commissions from the French state, the Flemish Opera House, the Nürnberg Opera House, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Ircam-Centre Pompidou, the Berlin Academy of Arts, the Strasbourg Musica Festival, Musée du Louvre, WDR, SWR, Kölner Philharmonie, Mécénat Musical Société Générale and the Selmer Society, among others. His works are premiered at the international festivals of Lucerne, Warsaw Autumn, Wien Modern, Paris Philharmonie, Donaueschingen, Ircam Manifeste, Witten, Stuttgart Opera House, Bacelona Opera Liceu, Guggenheim NY, San Francisco Arts Festival, Vienna Konzerthaus, etc.

He has composed six operas and music theatre works in close collaboration with writers such as Marie NDiaye and Händl Klaus, that has been staged by Caixto Bieito, Rebecca Ringst, Vera Nemirova, Georges Lavaudant, Matthew Ritchie, Benjamin Schad and Robert Pienz at the Antwerp Opera House 2019, Berlin Staatsoper 2016, Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele 2015, Münchener Biennale 2014, Theater Freiburg 2014, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord 2014, Festival Musica Strasbourg 2014, Sophiensaele Berlin and Basel Gare du Nord 2013, Gran Teatre del Liceu 2010, Luxemburg Philharmonie 2010, Kaaitheater Bruxelles 2010, Centre Pompidou 2009, Opera de Hoy 2007, Madrid.

Since the world premiere of his latest opera Les Bienveillantes, based on Jonathan Littell's eponymous novel, on a libretto by Händl Klaus and staged by Calixto Bieito, the international press has never stopped greeting the event: "The most important opera of the 21st century" La Vanguardia, "A grandiose and challenging score" BRF Nachrichten, "A highly expressive music, masterfully orchestrated" Neue Zürcher Zeitung, "A colossal score, of great dramatic force" El Mundo, "Immensely powerful, extremely cleverly built" Deutschlandfunk, "A limit experience" Crescendo Magazine. His opera Das geopferte Leben, 2014 was nominated by the prestigious German magazine Opernwelt "one of the premieres of the year", and his but last opera, Wilde, has been qualified as "a masterpiece" by the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and the specialized magazine Das Opernglas.

Among his latest projects, Inscape, an immersive symphonic work inspired by the cosmological theories of French physicist Jean -Pierre Luminet.

Winner of the Ernst von Siemens Composers Prize 2011 and Catalan National Prize for Culture 2017, in 2009 he won the Tendències Prize of the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. In 2007 he won the Donald Aird Memorial Prize of San Francisco and in 2008 the Impuls/Klangforum Wien de Graz. In 2005 he was unanimously awarded the Tremplin Prize given by the Ensemble Intercontemporain. In 2002 he won the Prize of the National Institute for Performing Arts and Music of Spain.

A monographic CD with his trios and chamber music performed by the ensemble Recherche has been published by the label KAIROS (2008). In 2010 KAIROS publishes his chamber opera Hypermusic Prologue, with a libretto of the renowned Harvard physicist Lisa Randall, played by the Ensemble Intercontemporain and Ircam, and in 2012 Col-legno and the Ernst von Siemens Foundation publishes his fourth monographic CD: Caressant l’Horizon.

His works are published by Durand/Universal Music Publishing Classical, Paris, and Editorial Tritó (Barcelona).