Born in Hanover, Bruns began his singing career as
alto soloist in the boys' choir of his home town of Hanover. After four years of private vocal training with Peter Sefcik, he studied at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre with Kammersängerin Renate Behle. While still a student, he was offered his first permanent engagement by the
Theater Bremen, which enabled him to build up a wide-ranging repertoire at an early stage and was soon followed by an ensemble contract at the
Cologne Opera. Via the
Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden, his way led him directly to the
Wiener Staatsoper, to which he is still bound by a residence contract. His musical range includes roles like Belmonte (
The Abduction from the Seraglio), Tamino (
The Magic Flute), Don Ottavio (
Don Giovanni), Fenton (
Falstaff), Camille de Rosillon (
The Merry Widow), Lysander (Britten: ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream), Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola), Boris Grigorievič (Janáček: Káťa Kabanová), Max (Der Freischütz), Erik (The Flying Dutchman), Loge (Das Rheingold), Lohengrin (Lohengrin), Matteo (Arabella),
Leukippos (Daphne)
and the Italian tenor in Capriccio and Der Rosenkavalier''. Guest appearances have taken him, inter alia, to the
Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the
Bayerische Staatsoper, the
Deutsche Oper Berlin, the
Staatstheater Nürnberg, the
Teatro Real in Madrid, the
Opernhaus Zürich, the Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile and the
Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. In summer 2010, he made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival as helmsman in
The Flying Dutchman. For Bruns,
oratorios and lieder form an important counterpart to his stage work. At the core of his extensive concert repertoire are the great sacred works of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn. He has performed with renowned ensembles such as the
Berliner Philharmoniker, the
Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the
Bayerisches Staatsorchester, the
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the
Czech Philharmonic, the
MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, the
Münchner Philharmoniker, the
Bamberger Symphoniker, the
WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Choir and Orchestra of the Netherlands Radio, the
Tölzer Knabenchor, the
Bremer Philharmoniker, the London Symphony Chorus as well as the Orchestra of the Bachakademie Stuttgart and the Gächinger Kantorei conducted by Helmuth Rilling. Bruns is a prize winner of the Bundeswettbewerbs Gesang Berlin, the Hamburg Mozart-Wettbewerbs and the international Gesangswettbewerbs der Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg. Special awards he received were the Kurt Hübner Prize of the Theater Bremen in 2008 and the Young Talent Award of the
Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in 2009. His Lied CD
Dichterliebe, with Schumann's
Dichterliebe and
Der arme Peter, Beethoven's
An die ferne Geliebte and Wolf's
Liederstrauß with
Karola Theill as pianist, was highly praised by the press and nominated for both the
International Classical Music Awards and the
Deutscher Schallplattenpreis in the category "Vocal Recital". == Awards ==