After having worked as concertmaster of various german orchestras such as Brandenburg Symphony, Bruno Merse studied conducting in Leipzig and soon started his career as laureate of the conducting competition in Biel, Switzerland which resulted in an invitation to his first concert with the Budweis Chamber Philharmonic in the Czech Republic.Later he was invited to the Festival De Musica Da Camara Lukas David in Lima, Peru.

He conducted numerous performances and concerts at the Lübeck Opera. In 2007 he became Solo Viola of the Hamburg Symphony and was appointed assistant to the orchestras chief conductor Sir Jeffrey Tate in 2010. Since then, he appears regularly with Hamburg Symphony and other german orchestras like Stuttgart Philharmonic.

He is chief conductor of the Lubeck Chamber Orchestra, focussing on contemporary music with this ensemble.

In Hamburg he also made a name for himself as opera conductor. Thus he directed Viktor Ullmann’s “The Emperor of Atlantis” in the Hamburgische Staatsoper, “The Turn Of The Screw” in the “Zeisehallen”, and numerous performances at the Hamburg Chamber Opera.Further more he conducted Mozart’s “Bastian and Bastienne” and “Der Schauspieldirektor” at the Laeiszhalle. During the world performance of the complete cycle of Tan Dun’s “Orchestral Theater” in autumn of 2013, Bruno Merse worked alongside the composer as second conductor. In addition, the premiere of the new instrumentation of Kurt Weill’s long lost mime “Die Zaubernacht” took place under his direction.

As a guest conductor, Bruno Merse was repeatedly invited to China, where he worked with the  orchestras of many cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou and Tianjin.