Andreas
Grüter

Swiss-born lighting designer Andreas Grüter began his theatre career at Luzerner Theater, where he worked as a lighting technician from 1991 to 1998. During this period, he completed his master craftsman qualification in event technology in Berlin. He then studied lighting design at the Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding in Munich.

After completing his studies, he initially worked as a freelance lighting designer for dance, theatre, musicals and opera, designing the lighting for numerous productions at venues including Prinzregententheater München, Staatstheater Oldenburg, Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel, Opéra de Marseille, Welsh National Opera, Volksoper Wien, Theater an der Wien, Nederlandse Reisopera, Scottish Opera, Admiralspalast Berlin, Teatro Pérez Galdós in Gran Canaria, the Hungarian State Opera, Nationaltheater Mannheim and Oper Bonn.

Between 2006 and 2010, he worked regularly for PVC Tanz Freiburg/Heidelberg with choreographers Joachim Schlömer, Eun-Me Ahn, Graham Smith and Olivia Maridjan-Koop, as well as directors Tom Schneider and Sebastian Nübling.

The Bayreuth Festival engaged him for “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”, directed by Katharina Wagner. The Vienna State Opera engaged him for “Moses und Aron” and “Elektra”. For the Ruhrtriennale, he designed the lighting for the productions “Le Vin herbé”, “Moses und Aron”, “Leila und Madschnun” and “Tristan und Isolde”.

From 2018 onwards, he collaborated regularly with director Andreas Kriegenburg on productions including “Die Hugenotten” at the Opéra Bastille, “Simon Boccanegra” at the Salzburg Festival, “Platée” at Göteborg Opera, “Der Freischütz” at the Hamburg State Opera and, in 2025, “Œdipe” at the Bregenz Festival.

Andreas Grüter has been Head of Lighting at Oper Köln since 2010, where he has designed the lighting for numerous productions. In Cologne, he has collaborated with directors including Tatjana Gürbaca, Dietrich Hilsdorf, Carlus Padrissa, Ted Huffman, Lydia Steier, Jan Philipp Gloger, Roland Schwab, Bernd Mottl, Johannes Erath, Michael Hampe and Uwe Eric Laufenberg, among many others.