MUSICAL DIRECTOR
Tony Bruno - MD for Grammy Award winning artist Rihanna - World Tours: Good Girl Gone Bad, Last Girl On Earth & Loud. Tony also MD’d every major TV show in the world with Rihanna, Enrique, Nena, Anastacia and other artists. Tony was Enrique Iglesias’ musical director for over 12 years, being responsible for hiring and rehearsing the band, arranging songs for TV and live productions, working in a team with the lighting director and choreographer to make these large concert productions a huge success.
“The audience doesn’t get to see how much time and effort goes into a show of this magnitude. Moments like this photo, myself, choreographer Tina Landon and stage director Tim Lamb trying to figure out how what’s in our heads is going to work on Rihanna’s stage. “ Tony Bruno
MD FOR RIHANNA
“The 2011 NBA Halftime Jam was the most challenging show ever. An 11 minute piece that had to include an orchestration, had to sound amazing and had to satisfy 3 huge artists: Rihanna, Kanye West and Drake. No easy task! AND it was her birthday. The end result was a huge success.” Tony Bruno
WORKING WITH EMINEM
“When I was told we were doing a show with EMINEM ( (VMA’s) I was super excited. The EMINEM SHOW was a huge album for me. He’s an intense dude to work with and such a pro. I had to explain he would be coming out of a “toaster” which shoots you up from under the stage. He was more than happy to ask me to do a test run!!
The crowd LOVED every minute of it!”
“Tony Bruno is one of the most incredible MD’s on the planet. He’s super creative in so many genres. In my opinion, his musical direction for Rihanna assisted her journey to stardom. From uptempo, to ballads he’s going to bring your show to life.”
— Eric Smith (Bass: Janet Jackson, Rihanna, Fantasia, Justin Timberlake, P. Diddy, Jamie Foxx)
At the 50th Anniversary of the Grammy's, Rihanna and Morris Day and The Time collaborated and performed a hit by both artists on stage ("Umbrella" Please Don’t Stop The Music” and "Jungle Love"). 2009, Arranged by Tony Bruno, Musical Director for both bands also Tony.
TONY WORKING AT THE GRAMMY’S
“Doing the Grammys is such an honor. This particular show with Morris Day and The Time was a career high. I grew up listening to all the amazing music Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis made. Plus, at the time Jimmy had just become the Chairman of the Academy of Recording Arts and Science (NARAS) so when he called me up after listening to my first draft of the arrangement and said “Tony, Jimmy here. This is dope! I might just add some “Jimmy Style” keys to it if thats OK. I’m like “uh…yeah man it’s totally ok!” One other note, when those cats showed up to rehearsal on a typical 102 degree Burbank afternoon, they were completely styled out! Class act!”
THE GRAMMY’S AGAIN
2010: Rihanna begged me to perform with her at the Grammy’s in 2010. I was super excited and we had an amazing rehearsal. Right after the rehearsal I got the phone call that Ri and Chris Brown had the infamous fight and that she is in the hospital and not able to perform. This was the only time I played guitar with her. What a blast. I have to find the recording from the Grammy’s rehearsal! “
2011: “This year we decided to do a duet with Drake as What’s My Name was the single at the moment (video above). I remember discussing it with her backstage at the David Letterman show and all she said was “ we need to go back to my early days - Dancehall”. This performance worked really well.”
Rihanna, Kanye West and Drake
NBA All Star Halftime Show 2011
Tony Bruno created this show for Rihanna, Kanye and Drake. Funny story to follow.
RIHANNA & The Klaxons - Brit Awards
Tony Bruno: “Every so often we would collaborate with another artist or band. These were super fun moments . This was the Brit Awards with the Klaxons doing their interpretation of Umbrella.”
“Tony Bruno is the best musical director I have ever had the pleasure of working for. He maintains a perfect balance of being a liaison between the artist and the musicians, as any MD should. He is an asset to any organization.”
RIHANNA @ TIMES SQUARE, NEW YEAR’S EVE
“As a native New Yorker, you never want to be in Times Square for New Years Eve! However, when your artist is performing there is does make things a bit easier. So I brought the family with me and my boy Hendrix, probably 3 at the time got a big New Year’s kiss!”
RIHANNA
LAST GIRL ON EARTH WORLD TOUR
“This was the “pull out all the stops” tour. It was over the top complete with pink tanks, Swarovski machine guns, elevators and people flying through the arena. Show director Jamie King had crazy big ideas and once again, my team made them happen. The show was so big we had to rehearse at one of Sonys sound stages in LA for 6 weeks. Crazy but super fun and creative. I remember seeing the actual finished product in Zurich and even after seeing it in rehearsal for 6 weeks, I was still blown away.”
RIHANNA AT THE AMA’S
“This was a slightly different approach from our usual “ hit ‘em over the head” approach. I thought it would be intimate and expose her natural voice with an acapella intro to this 2 song medley. Choreographer Tina Landon had the idea to sit in the tree which I love.”
Tony Bruno: Musical Director & Guitar - Live performance of "Maybe" and "Love to see you cry" and Billy Idol’s White Wedding by Enrique Iglesias (2002) at the MTV Music Awards in Barcelona.
MD FOR ENRIQUE IGLESIAS
“I was Enrique’s Guitarist and MD for 12 years. Never a dull moment to say the least. It was often hard to get him to step outside the image he had created for himself but this particular performance at the MTV Music Awards in Barcelona was an exception. The brainchild of myself and Steve Cohen (who incidentally is the Executive Producer of the upcoming Billy Joel series I am working on) we decided to go 80’s rock and combine Enrique’s “Love To See You Cry” with Billy Idol’s “White Wedding”. Super fun performance!” Tony Bruno
Tony Bruno - Reel
MD FOR KARMIN
‘Karmin was an interesting project. A quirky pop duo. Never before have I heard a female rapper like this. Nick and Amy were full of great ideas and whenever they would suggest one of them, I would put in into motion and make it happen. This was our SNL performance. Incidentally, they were the first indie/non-signed act to do this show.”
Karmin (Amy & Nick), Tony and Hendrix at rehearsal in LA
MD FOR NENA
“Meeting Nena was a turning point in my life. I was still playing with Joan Jett. Nena asked the Blackhearts to be here band for a tour. During that tour, my perspective of my life and career completely changed. I realized that when doors open you need to see what’s on the other side no matter what the risk may seem like at the time. I had no idea how much things would change. I left Joan after 5 incredible years and soon found myself introduced (by Nena) to the woman I would spend my life with, my wife Karin, and living in Nena’s house with her family and producing her record. It was all such a powerful experience that I knew I was ready to take on any challenge from that point on. It was shortly after that tour ended that the challenge showed up. Along came Enrique…”
MD FOR LA VOZ KIDS
Tony Bruno - Musical director, house band leader & guitarist for La Voz Kids (Miami). Responsible for all music on the show. Working with all contestants as well as getting the band ready to play the songs live. Paolo Guanche was one of the finalists and ended up winning this season covering a Whitney Houston song. “This was a challenge for me because at least half of the songs were in Spanish! So I hired my 2 good friends Christian Mendoza (guitar) and Luis Guzman (bass) as part of the band. They’re great musicians AND they speak Spanish!! Luis is currently in the Rock Me Amadeus band with me.”
Music video by Delta Goodrem performing Wish You Were Here. Acoustic performance with Tony Bruno on guitar,
MD FOR DELTA GOODREM
“As her Musical Director, I prepared Delta’s Australian tour and worked closely with her in her house in LA. At the same time we shot an acoustic special in her living room. She is a joy to work with and a great talent.“
Delta Goodrem Melbourne Concert 2012 "An Evening With Delta" Wish You Were Here. Musical Director: Tony Bruno
MD FOR ZAYN MALIK (ONE DIRECTION)
Zayn Malik (One Direction) hired Tony Bruno to MD his show and to put a band together for him. Tony auditioned and rehearsed the musicians at SIR studios in NY. In this video Zayn is performing at Jimmy Fallon.
Tony Bruno, Musical Director & Guitarist for Katharine McPhee "Lick My Lips" on Live with Kelly and Michael. 2015
MD FOR KATHARINE MCPHEE
“I only worked with Kat on a few TV shows. My good friend Doug Petty was her MD at the time and called me for a favor. She had some important TV performances that needed a new band and arrangement. Doug said she was an absolute joy to work with. He was right. Oddly enough, a few years later Kat was doing “Waitress” on Broadway a block from where I was doing “Rocktopia” on Broadway. I’m on the platform for the Uptown E train and see a very confused young lady looking for someone to ask for help. She was relieved when I walked up and told her we were headed in the same direction. Small world.”
Donny and Marie perform at the Fabulous Flamingo Las Vegas. Since 2008, hundreds of thousands have come to see the show; sometimes multiple times. It's no wonder why the Las Vegas Review Journal voted The Donny & Marie Show the Best Show and Best Performers for 2012 -- Donny was even awarded The Best Singer.
MD FOR DONNY OSMOND
“When I got the call from Donny Osmond it was not from his manager or anything like that. It was like "HeyTony, Donny here" like we just left each other 20 minutes earlier and he forgot to tell me something. Anyway, he was doing a Vegas show with his sister Marie. His 45 minute set followed by her 45 minute set and then a 30 minute set together. There was a song from back in the day called Crazy Horses. He wanted me to blow it up into a lethal weapon that would be at the end of his set and in his words "would blow my sister away" right before her set started. What I loved about him was, unlike almost all artists, he was crazy tech savvy. I ask him who I should send the finished files to and he's like talking sample rates and stems and and all that. Great dude. I did one more song for that show a few months later. I do hope our paths cross again.”
K’Naan (ft. David Bisbal) performing his song Wavin` Flag at Europe’s biggest TV Show Wetten Dass...? (Mallorca 2010). This song got huge by being the official soccer world cup song. Spain won the final at this world cup.
MD FOR K’NAAN
“I feel blessed to have been introduced to K’Naan, the artist and the person. He is a real poet and he puts everything he believes in into his music. When I first heard Troubadour, I was floored. He let me explore this iconic record and trusted me to bring his music to a different life for live shows. Although we worked extensively on his Wavin’ Flag performance at the World Cup, my favorite moment was at Irving Plaza in NYC. We were opening for Lenny Kravitz and K’Naan wanted to sing Somalia, a politically driven personal story about the choice his mother had to make between him and his brother, who would go to America and who would not. The band felt shaky on the song as we haven’t rehearsed it so K’Naan asked me “what do you think?”. I said “just do it”. Little do I know that he would do it by himself as a poem, a ballsy move in front of a revved up Lenny Kravitz crowd. The audience was floored! The applause was thunder. Gives me goosebumps just to talk about it.”
K’Naan performing his song Somalia at Irving Plaza, NYC and the audience gives him standing ovations.
“When putting K’Naan’s band together I was looking for musicians that could swing, rock and play hip hop. And most important - follow K’Naan who can improve on a moment’s notice.”
“Being K'Naan’s musical director was amazing. His passion and spirit for music is rare. We rehearsed for his world tour in NY. “
