David Bruchez is Principal Trombone of the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra and Professor at the Zurich University of the Arts.
He completed his musical studies at the Lausanne Conservatoire, and went on to further study in New York, London and at the "Herbert von Karajan" Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
At a very young age he was already being noticed in international competitions for mixed classes of instrument. His considerable musicality and soloistic virtuosity on the trombone - an instrument too often judged of secondary interest in the world of classical music - enabled him to become the first brass player to reach the final of the prestigious "Eurovision Competition for Young Musicians" in Warsaw in 1994 and to win the "International Forum of Young Performers" in Bratislava in 1999 (a competition organised by the European Broadcasting Union under the auspices of UNESCO).
He has been awarded the following prizes:
the Concours Suisse de Musique pour la Jeunesse in 1991,
the Migros Scholarship 1993-1996;
the Kiefer-Hablitzel prize of the Association des Musiciens Suisses in 1997;
the Concours International d'Exécution Musicale de Genève in 1998,
the Prize of the town of Passau (Germany) 1997
the "Branimir Slokar Competition" in 2000.
With 20 years old, he was appointed principal trombone of the “Zürich Opera Orchestra” under the direction of Franz Welser Möst, position that he held for the last ten years. In this period, he had the opportunity to work with artists like: Claudio Abbado, Nello Santi, Sir Georg Solti, Sir Simon Rattle, David Zinman, Sir John Elliot Gardiner, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bernhard Haitink, Zubin Metha, Riccardo Chailly, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Ivan and Adam Fischer, Christoph von Donhany, Alan Gilbert, Michel Plasson, Jean-Claude Casadesus... to name a few conductors with whom he worked with...
As soloist he has performed with the orchestras of: la Suisse Romande, Warsaw National Orchestra, Radio Basel, Lausanne Sinfonietta, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Svizzera Italiana, Kremerata Baltica, St. Petersburg Camerata, Radio Slovakia, Radio Kiev, and of the town of Biel...
His repertoire extends from baroque concertos (also on historical instruments) to avant-garde works of the current literature by way of the classical concertos of the trombonistic literature. He has performed as recitalist and in chamber music in Vienna (ORF, Wien Modern), Berlin (Kleine Philharmonie), Paris (Cité de la musique), Verona (Festival di Ottoni), Cologne (WDR), Zürich, Davos (Young Artist in Concert), Sion (Tibor Varga Festival with Chritian Lindberg and Hakan Hardenberger), St. Petersburg (Olympus Festival), Swiss Brass Week, Basel (les muséiques with Gidon Kremer)... His many recordings for television and radio as well as on CD are evidence of the wide spectrum of his activities. His first solo recording “Grammont Portrait” received very good critics in the press.
As a pedagog he was faculty member of the “Conservatoire de Musique de Lausanne” and the “Tibor Varga Academy” in Sion. From 2005 to 2008, the prestigious “Hochschule für Musik Detmold” (Germany) has given him the Chair of trombone.
