Honored Persons

Martin Grubinger

Musician. Grubinger received his first lessons from his father, Martin Grubinger sen., a drummer and teacher at the Mozarteum, who arranges and conducts the performances of the Percussive Planet Orchestra, today. Already as a teenager Grubinger took part in international finals such as the Marimba World Competition in Okaya (Japan), where he was one of the finalists as at the EBU competition in Norway. He studied at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz and from 2000 at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Martin Grubinger is considered one of the world's best marimba players. He performs worldwide as a soloist and with orchestra in the major concert halls. Grubinger does not only impress with technique and tempo, but plays (about 400 instruments) with great devotion and joy - and without music notes. Martin Grubinger expresses himself very clearly and repeatedly against racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia. In workshops with different social groups, he repeatedly points out that the diversity of global cultures, traditions and religions are enriching elements of a humanistically oriented society. In 2010, for example, in protest of the reunification of the BZÖ and FPÖ, he canceled a concert at the Carinthian Summer. He did not want to perform in Carinthia until "when there is a climate that also feels connected to the multicultural, the togetherness, the cohesion of different traditions, different peoples, different influences". Currently, Grubinger is clearly positioning itself against the deportation and exclusion of refugees and has even taken asylum seekers under his wings.