Biography

Martin Grütter, born 1983 in Trostberg/Bavaria, studied composition and electronic music in Berlin and Frankfurt with Hanspeter Kyburz and Wolfgang Heiniger.

His works have been performed worldwide by leading performers such as the Ensemble Modern, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Berlin Philharmonic and the WDR Symphony Orchestra at festivals such as the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, the Bregenz Festival, Klangspuren Schwaz, the Berlinale and the MATA Festival New York.

He was a fellow of the International Ensemble Modern Academy (2011/12), the Academy "Musiktheater heute" (2010–12) and the Cultural Academy Tarabya/Istanbul (2025). Also, he received prizes and awards at the composition competition of the Robert Schumann Society Düsseldorf (1999), the composition competition "In memoriam György Ligeti" (2007), the Hanns Eisler Prize Berlin (2007), the International Composition Competition of the MusikTriennale Köln (2010), the Mahler Composition Competition Vienna (2010), the composition competition "Courtyard of the Gentiles" (2013) and the composition competition "Old Hispanic Office" (2016). His collaborative music/video work "Schakal" was awarded Best Music Film at the Animator Festival Poznan (2019) and Best Retro Avant Garde Short Film at the Retro Avant Garde Film Festival in Cairo (2020).

Martin Grütter's music deals with the exploration of performative, perceptual and artistic limits. He is particularly fascinated by speed and rhythm, transcendence, virtuosity, madness and irony. His compositions include solo, ensemble, orchestral and vocal music as well as various live-electronic, performative, interactive, improvisational and scenic works. He regularly cooperates with artists from other genres, often in long-term collaborations.

As a utopian development site for complex and boundary-breaking music, he founded the concert format "Schwelbrand" in 2011 as well as the 25-member Schwelbrandorchester, with which he regularly develops cross-genre productions in live space and in virtual contexts.

He lives and works in Berlin.