Markus Stenz

Markus Stenz has held several high-profile positions including Principal Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (2012–2019), Principal Guest of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (2015–2019) and Conductor-In-Residence of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (2016–2021). He was General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister for 11 years, conducting Mozart's Don Giovanni, Wagner’s Ring cycle, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as well as Janáček's Jenůfa and Katya Kábanová and Eötvös’s Love and other Demons.

He made his opera debut in 1988 at Teatro La Fenice in Venice. After a recent and highly successful Mozart and Strauss concert, he returned last season to conduct two concert weeks with repertoire including Mozart, Schumann, and Wagner and will return this season and beyond for productions of Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer and Berg's Wozzeck.

In 2018 Stenz conducted Schreker's Die Gezeichneten at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich and was due to return in 2021 for Fidelio before it was cancelled due to the pandemic. 2018 also saw the long-awaited world premiere of Kurtág's Fin de partie at Teatro alla Scala Milan (where he also had a great success conducting Strauss's Elektra) followed by performances of the Kurtág for Dutch National Opera and most recently its French premiere at Opéra National de Paris.

After a recent appearance at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Britten’s Death in Venice, Stenz returned last season to conduct Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and this season will conduct Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann.

The 2022–2023 season also sees Stenz’s debut with the Orchestra dell’Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He is delighted to return to the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra as well as to three orchestras where he previously held positions: Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln. Elsewhere in Europe he will conduct a Wagner evening with Nina Stemme in Budapest, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra at Linz Brucknerfest, and the Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe. In the US he makes his debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and returns to the Oregon Symphony and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.  

Further ahead he looks forward to returning to Orchestre National de Lyon and Dutch National Opera. Following a very successful debut with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Mahler Symphony No. 2 in 2022, he will return to the CBSO in the 2023-2024 season.

Stenz's most recent CD release was Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. Other recent highlights include concerts with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dortmund and Luxembourg philharmonic orchestras, Orchestre National de Lyon, Bergen Philharmonic, and Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. 

While with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Stenz received the prize for ‘The Best Concert Programme of the 2003–2004 Season’ as well as initiating a number of youth and educational projects such as “Experiment Klassik,” “3. Akt,” and the concert live-recording project “GO live.”