Photo © Regine Huegli
Born in Zurich in 1952, DIETER FLURY enjoyed private flute lessons during his school years with the then solo flutist of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, Hans Meyer. After graduating from the Cantonal Literary Gymnasium in Zurich in 1971, he moved to André Jaunet at the Zurich Conservatory and completed his flute studies in 1976 with a soloist diploma. Few but highly stimulating encounters with Auréle Nicolet complemented his education and had a lasting influence on his development. André Jaunet, whose school also includes Hans Meyer and Aurèle Nicolet, was undoubtedly the defining personality in the career of flutist Dieter Flury.
At the age of 25 he was accepted into the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera. From 1981 to 2017 he was solo flutist of the Vienna Philharmonic; From 2005 to 2014 he was also responsible for the artistic planning of the Vienna Philharmonic as managing director. Dieter Flury has been a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz since 1996.
In addition to his orchestral work, he appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra under conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta , Roger Norrington, Edmond de Stoutz, Christian Thilemann and developed a strong chamber music activity among others with the Wiener Bläserensemble, the Klangforum Wien and the Wiener Virtuosen.
He has written works by Pierre Boulez, Beat Furrer, György Ligeti, Salvatore Sciarrino, René Staar, Theo Wegmann, Herbert Willi and Hans Zender in close collaboration with the composers. He premiered Uros Rojko's concertos for flute and orchestra with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Claudio Abbado as part of the festival "Wien Modern". In 2011/12 he was soloist in residence at the Baden Baden Philharmonic.
His discography at Special Music Edition and at Camerata Tokyo includes works by Bach, Telemann, Hydn, Mercadante, Mozart, Varèse, Scelsi, Berio, Halffter, Wegmann, two CDs of French composers, two CDs of flute quartets from the Viennese Classical and one record harpist Mojca Zlobko-Vajgl.