Martin Frutiger, Oboe
Martin Frutiger is Principal Cor Anglais with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. In 2023, he was appointed Professor of Oboe at the Zurich University of the Arts. Previously, he had been teaching in the same position at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. In addition to teaching and his commitment as an orchestral musician, Martin Frutiger regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician. Invitations for concerts and master classes took him throughout Europe, Asia and the USA. He is a member of the woodwind quintet “Swiss5” and has performed as Principal Cor Anglais in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra.
Martin Frutiger studied at the Bern Conservatory with Prof. Hans Elhorst and earned his master’s degree at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, instructed by Prof. Günther Passin. Subsequently, he continued his training as an oboist in the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Academy for two years.
Martin Frutiger has won several competitions, including the International Oboe Competition of the Handel Festival in Halle on the Saale and the “Concours National d’Execution Musicale” in Riddes, Switzerland. In 2003, he was awarded the second prize at the International Sony Competition in Tokyo. In the same year, he was also a finalist in the “New Talent” competition of the European Broadcasting Union in Bratislava.
As a soloist he has, among others, performed with the Bern and Lucerne Symphony Orchestras, the Slovakian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Kammerorchester Basel, the Philharmonie in Sibiu (Romania), the Capella Istropolitana and the New Bach Collegium Musicum Leipzig. In January 2007, he was the soloist in Stanisław Skrowaczewski's English Horn Concerto with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich conducted by the composer himself.
Martin Frutiger’s performance of romantic works for Cor Anglais and piano has been released on three CDs on the British label «Guild». He is Artistic Director for Oboe of “The Muri Competition”.