Martin Grubinger

The Austrian multi-percussionist Martin Grubinger, who was born in 1983, studied at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz and the Mozarteum of his native Salzburg. He came to attention at a young age by giving such spectacular performances as a marathon of six percussion concertos, which he played at the Musikverein in Vienna. Grubinger’s goal is to incorporate percussion as a solo instrument into musical life, whether through his own ensemble The Percussive Planet or as a soloist in orchestral concerts. To this end he regularly commissions renowned composers to write new works for his multifaceted set of instruments: Rolf Wallin, Avner Dorman, Tan Dun, HK Gruber, and Peter Eötvös number among the musicians who have created scores tailor-made for him. Grubinger performs around the world at the major festivals and organizations. He has served as artist-in-residence with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and with the Camerata Salzburg and has been featured on the programming at the Konzerthaus in Vienna and the Cologne Philharmonie. In 2013 he was “artiste étoile” at LUCERNE FESTIVAL. Grubinger’s credits include with the Salzburg Festival, the Rheingau Festival, the Bregenz Festival, and the Beethoven Festival in Bonn. He has been engaged to perform concerts with such orchestras as the Vienna, Los Angeles, and New York Philharmonics; the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; the Czech Philharmonic; the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. Grubinger often takes on genre-bending endeavors like the salsa project Caribbean Showdown and the show Free My Way with breakdancers. His most recent release is a recording of the Percussion Concerto composed for him by Friedrich Cerha. Martin Grubinger received the Bernstein Award of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in 2007.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 16 August 2010 with Avner Dorman’s Frozen in Time, accompanied by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons.

August 2016