Conductor Markus Stenz appointed professor

Markus Stenz © Kaupo Kikkas

The internationally renowned conductor Markus Stenz will be appointed Professor of Conducting at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin in the summer semester of 2023. With him, the school is gaining an outstanding and experienced artist for its conducting department.

In November 2022, the conducting class and the symphony orchestra of the school already worked together with Markus Stenz in a successful orchestra workshop week. He will also conduct the school's symphony orchestra for the first time in the upcoming summer semester 2023 on 12 June at the Konzerthaus Berlin. The programme includes Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony.

I am very excited about the new task at the Hanns Eisler School of Music with its outstanding personalities. I am honoured to accept the call as successor to Professor Christian Ehwald and to continue his outstanding work and rich tradition. I am curious about the views and approaches of the future generation of conductors. At the same time, the professorship allows me to pass on my knowledge and skills, as well as the experiences that have been and continue to be important for me as an artist. As a conductor, you never stop learning.

Prof. Markus Stenz

World career as concert and opera conductor

Intelligent clarity and a profound, always curious musicality characterise Markus Stenz's work. He has held numerous important positions with international orchestras and opera houses, including Principal Conductor of the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister, Principal Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta, Principal Guest Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé Orchestra, Conductor in Residence with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Montepulciano Festival.

As an opera conductor, he has conducted numerous premieres, including the world premiere of György Kurtág's opera "Fin de Partie" at La Scala in Milan and at Amsterdam's Dutch National Opera, Hans Werner Henze's "Das verratene Meer" in Berlin, "Venus und Adonis" at the Bavarian State Opera and "L' Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe" at the Salzburg Festival. Markus Stenz has appeared as a guest conductor at international opera houses such as Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, English National Opera, Lyric Opera Chicago, San Francisco and LA Opera, at the Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburg State Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Frankfurt Opera as well as at international festivals such as the Glyndebourne Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Bregenz Festival and Salzburg Festival.

Markus Stenz has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Staatskapelle and Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Bamberg Symphony, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra and the BR, HR, WDR, NDR and MDR radio orchestras. In the USA he has worked with the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston.

In the 2022/23 season Markus Stenz will be a guest conductor with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestra dell'Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna as part of the International Brucknerfest Linz, the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Philharmonia Zürich and the Badische Staatskapelle, as well as by re-invitation with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest and Gürzenich-Orchester Köln. He is also conducting the revival of Jacques Offenbach's "Tales of Hoffmann" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Within his extensive discography, the recording of Schönberg's Gurre-Lieder with the Gürzenich Orchestra under his direction won the Gramophone Classical Music Award.