The conductor, born in Würzburg, studied piano, composition and conducting at the Berlin UdK. His participation in the Lied interpretation courses of Aribert Reimann and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was particularly formative. After completing their studies, he was immediately given a teaching position in the Lied repertoire at the same institute. The accompaniment of song recitals is therefore still an important complement to his conducting activities.

The participation in the courses of Sergiu Celibidache was extremely helpful for the understanding of structural connections. Composition lessons with Witold Szalonek, a student of Nadia Boulanger, led in the same artistic direction. The music of French modernism is therefore an exposed focus in the repertoire of Raoul Grüneis. The work of Richard Wagner represents another. The particular stylistic demands of his operas were essentially brought to his attention as an accompanist to the courses of Waltraut Meier, Anna Reynolds and Jean Cox in Bayreuth. While working at the Mannheim National Theatre under Jun Märkl, he was also assistant to Donald Runnicles and Giuseppe Sinopoli at the Bayreuth Festival. Nevertheless, his repertoire ranges from Baroque (with a profound knowledge of performance practice) to contemporary scores.

After engagements at the theatres of Freiburg, Mannheim, Oldenburg and Darmstadt, he was appointed General Music Director in Regensburg from 2005 to 2009. From 2010 to 2012 he was General Music Director of the Istanbul State Opera, where he conducted mainly works from the German repertoire, and from 2013 to 2020 he was General Music Director of the Central Saxon Philharmonic. Even in difficult times he is still closely associated with the opera in Istanbul as a guest conductor.

After various recordings, he will continue to work with the Deutsche Radio-Philharmonie in 2021. A highly successful South American tour in 2019 with Mischa Maisky and the RTV Symphony Orchestra Slovenia led to an immediate invitation to rejoin the orchestra.

As a guest conductor Raoul has worked with the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Weimar, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, Orchestre de Chambre Lausanne, Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Brno, Jena and Gdansk, the Radio Orchestras of Sofia and Prague, the Sofia Chamber Orchestra, the Kurpfalz Chamber Orchestra, and the Philharmonic Orchestras of Gwangzhou and Seoul.

Raoul Grüneis was always welcome in Venezuela, where he has conducted all the countrys major orchestras for more than ten years, most recently with the traditional Orquesta sinfonica de Venezuela. Highlights there were a Wagner gala with Deborah Voigt and a concertante Siegfried production.

Guest appearances have also taken Raoul Grüneis to the opera houses of Graz and Dublin, the National Theatre Prague (Narodny divadlo), the State Opera Ankara, the State Opera Hanover, the Landestheater Innsbruck, the National Theatre Weimar and the State Opera Stuttgart, where he made his debut with Debussys Pelléas et Mélisande. Since a concertante Valkyrie with the Presidental Orchestra in Ankara, he has been associated with them as a permanent guest conductor and works there with renowned soloists such as Idil Biret, Fazil Say and Isabell Faust, especially works from the German repertoire.

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An important part of his work is also the work with children and young people, especially after his acquaintance with the Venezuelan El Sistema and its most prominent representative, Gustavo Dudamel.