Heidi Brunner was born in Switzerland. She studied singing, organ and conducting in Lucerne, Basel and Zurich. Her first engagements as an opera singer took her to Basel, Innsbruck, Biel and Dessau. She then performed at the Komische Oper in Berlin (Angelina in La Cenerentola and Charlotte in Werther, among others) before being engaged in a troupe and in residence at the Staatsoper and the Volksoper in Vienna from 1996 to 2008. She performed there, among others, La Cenerentola, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Idamante in Idomeneo, Die Sekretärin (der Konsul) G.C. Menotti, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Nicklausse in The Tales of Hoffmann, Sesto, Anio and Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito, Adalgisa in Norma and the title role in La Périchole.
In 1998, she made her debut in L’Orfeo by Monteverdi at the Opernfestspiele in Munich and at the Wiener Festwochen. She embodies Idamante again as part of the Klangbogen festival at the Theater an der Wien and then we find her on stages such as the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Grand Théâtre de Genève and the Salzburg Festival.
She has performed in recitals and concerts at the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Berlin, Milan, Lyon, Paris, Zurich, Basel, Lisbon, Bergen, Helsingborg, Munich, Wiesbaden, and Duisburg.
She enriches her repertoire with Irrelohe by Schreker and Notre Dame by Schmidt at the Volksoper in Vienna, Mathis der Maler by Hindemith at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Erwartung by Schönberg at the Komische Oper Berlin, as well as at the Musikverein in Vienna. She then made her debuts in the roles of Marie (Wozzeck) at the Staatsoper Hamburg, Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito) and Marta (Tiefland) at the Volksoper in Vienna, Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and Madame Lidoine (Dialogues des Carmélites) at the Theater an der Wien, Kundry (Parsifal) at the Teatro Regio Turin, Giulietta (The Tales of Hoffmann) and the Mother in Kullvero by Aulis Sallinen at the Frankfurt Opera and Sieglinde (Die Walküre) at the Hamburg Staatsoper.
Heidi made her debut in 2015 as Mother Mary (Dialogues des Carmélites). She sang The Seven Deadly Sins by Kurt Weil in the Forbidden City in Beijing.
She has worked with renowned conductors including: Ivor Bolton, Bertrand de Billy, Gabriele Ferro, Leopold Hager, Thomas Hengelbrock, René Jacobs, Philippe Jordan, Ingo Metzmacher, Franz Welser Möst, Arnold Östmann, Alfred Eschwé, Larry Foster, Kirill Petrenko, Peter Schneider, Marcello Viotti, Sebastian Weigle, Simone Young, Alberto Zedda.
Heidi Brunner started teaching singing in 2012, and is a recognized and much appreciated pedagogue.
Since 2020, Heidi Brunner has been singing teacher at the Haute École de Musique de Genève.
In this context, she also gives specialized courses in preparation for auditions and singing competitions.
Heidi Brunner’s discography includes, among others, M.R.Delalande Magnificat (Erato) W.A.Mozart Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro (SONY/BMG), Tristan und Isolde (excerpts) as well as Dialogues des Carmélites, G. Puccini , Il Tabarro (Capriccio), A. Zemlinsky Eine Florentinische Tragödie (Capriccio) She also engraved a portrait with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.