His father, Jan Berend Hendrik Bruinier (1863–1934) had been born in Amsterdam, but lived in Germany where he worked as the chief executive officer (Geschäftsführer) of a manufacturing company in the heavy industrial sector.
Bruinier started his formal musical training as a pupil of the violinist Adalbert Gülzow [de] between 1912 and 1914.
He studied at the Berlin Music Academy from 1914 till 1917, and was then able to get away from the war playing as a member of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra between 1917 and 1918.
Between 1928 and 1937 Bruinier worked as concert master for the Tobis Film company: from 1937 he was employed in the same position at Berlin's Nollendorf Square Theatre (as it was then known).
Along with this, between 1951 and 1961 he held summer chamber music courses in the hills south of Würzburg, for JMI at Schloss Weikersheim.