Peter Burwik

Austrian conductor, born in Hamburg / Germany, studied conducting with legendary teacher Hans Swarowsky, a student of Arnold Schönberg and Anton Webern, at the Vienna Music Academy. Additional studies with Argeo Quadri in conducting Italian opera and with Bruno Maderna in Salzburg and Darmstadt for conducting of New Music, had a long-lasting influence on Burwik’s musical development. Parallel to his musical education he studied Theatre Science at the University of Vienna.

1967 Burwik founded the University Orchestra in Vienna, 1971 “The XXth Cen-tury Ensemble Vienna” – whose music director he has been ever since – with the aim of stimulating and promoting contemporary music internationally. CD-Productions, released by “Gramola”, „col legno“ and „Capriccio“ attest to the esthetic range and exceptional quality of his work.

Since the 1970s, Burwik has been guest conductor with important orchestras in Europe, e.g. RSO Berlin, Orchestre Philharmonique Paris, NDR-Symphonie-orchester Hamburg, Orchestre National de Lille, ORF-Symphonieorchester, Rundfunkorchester Lissabon, Symphonieorchester of SF-Stuttgart, Wiener Symphoniker und WOS Katowice – where he conducted mixed programs of traditional classical repertory and XXth century music.

1991 – 1994 he was permanent guest conductor with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he also toured abroad. This relationship culmi-nated with a performance of Gustav Mahler’s 2. Symphony (with soloists from the opera house in Prague and the Philharmonic Choir from Brno). Recent symphony programs in Kasakhstan and Bulgaria included works by Berg, Beethoven, Mozart, Tschaikowsky and Haydn.

1985 Burwik started teaching at the Music University in Vienna (Prof. for inter-pretation and performance technique of new music and conducting), where he subsequently established a scheme for contemporary music education involv-ing interaction between composers, lectures for instrumentalists, international repertory of new music for instrumental students and conducting. Together with his teaching at the Music University in Vienna, he has also been internationally active in this field (Santiago de Chile, Caracas, Bozen, Darting-ton, Havanna, Astana, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu).

2011 Burwik was awarded the „Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Arts“.