Ola Rudner

A violinist at first, conductor Ola Rudner has been active in Australia as well as in Europe. He is known for conducting both orchestral music and opera from various time periods. Rudner was born in Gislaved in southern Sweden on December 11, 1953. He started his career as a violinist and took sixth prize at the Paganini Competition in Genoa, Italy, in 1977. Rudner held concertmaster positions with several prestigious organizations, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Volksoper Orchestra in Vienna, and the Camerata Salzburg. In 1990, he made his recording debut as a violinist, joining the Helsingborg Symphony on an album of works by Karl-Birger Blomdahl on the MAP label. With Farshid Girakhou and Walter Schober, he founded the Philharmonia Wien (not to be confused with the Wiener Philharmoniker) in 1995. Rudner’s move to conducting came about after he landed a post as an assistant to Sándor Vegh, a musician who was also active as both a violinist and a conductor. In the late ’90s, Rudner gravitated toward conducting, and he made his recording debut in that field in 1999 on the BIS label, leading the Swedish Chamber Orchestra on the album Sally Beamish: River. Rudner’s conducting career developed rapidly. He served as chief conductor of the Tasmanian Symphony in Australia from 2001 to 2003, returning to Europe to take the same post with the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento from 2003 to 2006. Rudner was the chief conductor of Württembergische Philharmonie in Reutlingen, Germany, from 2008 to 2016, building that group into a major German regional ensemble and taking it on tours of Austria, Italy, and Eastern Europe. He has remained active in Australia, leading all of the country’s major orchestras as a guest. He has also guest conducted a wide variety of European orchestras, including most of the top Scandinavian groups as well as the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Wiener Symphoniker, and the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, among many others. He is also recognized as an opera conductor, leading productions at houses in Australia, Italy, Sweden, and Austria. Rudner’s repertory is large, ranging from the Baroque era to contemporary music by Rolf Martinsson, who dedicated a work to the conductor. His central focus has been on the Germanic tradition from Haydn to Bruckner. In addition to BIS, Rudner has recorded for ABC Classics in Australia, Ars Produktion, CPO, and other labels, moving to Naxos in 2024 for a recording of orchestral music by Franz von Suppé with the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Vienna. By that time, his recording catalog comprised more than 20 releases. ~ James Manheim