Jürgen Bräuninger was born in 1956 in Germany and studied in Stuttgart with Ulrich Süsse and Erhard Karkoschka and at San Jose State University, California, with Alan Strange and Daniel Wyman. From 1985 to 2015 he lectured in composition and music technology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. In addition to many compositions for ensembles of acoustic and electronic instruments, he has also contributed to a number of film soundtracks. He has produced South African jazz albums as well as recordings for workers' cultural groups and neo-traditional praise poets. He has worked with choreographer/director Jay Pather on various Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre productions, among them Ahimsa-Ubuntu and A South African Siddhartha. More recent works include collaborations with Sazi Dlamini such as Qob'uqalo (2014) and Jiwe released as part of The Bow Project (2010) by Tutl Records, as well as with Ari Sitas, Sumangala Damodaran et al.: Insurrections: a musical dialogue between Indian and South African artists (2012) and Mayihlome/Aahwaan (2014) published by South African History Online.