ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENTS
Markus Stenz is Principal Guest Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Conductor-in-Residence of the Seoul Philharmonic.
His previous positions have included Principal Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, General Music Directorof the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister (posts he relinquished in the summer of 2014), Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra (2010-2014), Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (1998-2004), Principal Conductor of London Sinfonietta (1994–1998) and Artistic Director of the Montepulciano Festival (1989–1995).
PERFORMANCES
In 2000 he took the Melbourne Symphony on their first European tour including concerts in Munich, Cologne, Zurich and Salzburg, and in 2008 visited China with the Gürzenich Orchestra and conducted their first ever BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall. He later returned to China with Cologne Opera for two cycles of Wagner’s Ring in Shanghai, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Beijing, with the Gürzenich Orchestra.
Markus Stenz has appeared at many of the world’s major opera houses and international festivals including Teatro alla Scala Milan, La Monnaie in Brussels, English National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Stuttgart Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera and Edinburgh International Festival. His notable performances in Cologne have included Wagner’s Ring, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as well as Janacek’s Jenufa and Katya Kabanova, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Eötvös’s Love and other Demons. He made his opera debut in 1988 at La Fenice in Venice in the first performance of Henze’s revised version of Elegy for Young Lovers, and has since conducted many world premières including Henze’s Das Verratene Meer for Deutsche Oper Berlin, Venus und Adonis for Bavarian State Opera, L’Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe at the Salzburg Festival, Wolfgang Rihm’s Die Eroberung von Mexico and Detlef Glanert’s Caligula for Frankfurt Opera and Solaris at the Bregenz Festival. Most recently returned to Bayerische Staatsoper Munich for Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten.
On the concert platform Markus regularly appears with several of the world’s leading orchestras, among them the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, NHK, the Symphony Orchestra of the Bayerische Rundfunk, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, London Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Vienna Symphony and the Symphony Orchestras of the Hessische Rundfunk, and NDR.
In the United States these have included the Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnatti, Dallas, Houston, San Diego, and St Louis Symphony Orchestras, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Minnesota Orchestra.
In addition to concerts with his own orchestras in Baltimore, Seoul and the Netherlands, recent and forthcoming engagements include returns to the Stavanger, Antwerp, Sao Paulo and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and China National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra, and debuts with Orchestre National de Lyon, Bergen Philharmonic, and Barcelona Symphony Orchestras. In the US engagements include St Louis, Utah, San Diego, Nashville, Indianappolis, and Oregon Symphony Orchestras.
On stage he conducts the world première of Kurtag’s Fin de Partie at La Scala, Milan, and Dutch National Opera.
RECORDING
Markus Stenz and the Gürzenich Orchestra have recorded the complete cycle of Gustav Mahler's symphonies for Oehms Classics. Their recording of Mahler's 5th Symphony received a German Record Critics’ Award in November 2009. Their first recording for Hyperion of Strauss’ Don Quixote and Till Eulenspiegel received unanimous critical acclaim, and was followed by an equally celebrated recording of Schönberg’s Gurrelieder released in 2015, which received the Choral Award at the 2016 Gramophone Awards.
HONOURS AND AWARDS
He has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Northern College of Music and the “Silberne Stimmgabel” (Silver Tuning Fork) of the state of North Rhein/Westphalia.
EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE
Markus Stenz studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne under Volker Wangenheim and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa.
