Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra

Reaching out to audiences is at the heart of the project and a number of musical encounters are proposed including family concerts in an adapted format, instrument discovery workshops, encounters with the artists, immersions into “the heart of the Orchestra” and open rehearsals for schoolchildren and students.

The Orchestra has also adopted an extensive audio-visual policy with a number of media partners, thereby ensuring visibility on a national and international scale.

The Orchestra contributes to Strasbourg’s outreach with regular performances throughout France and Europe at festivals and the most prestigious concert halls: Philharmonie de Paris, KKL in Lucerne, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Gasteig in Munich, Musikverein in Vienna, etc. It has resumed its grand international tours which have already taken the Orchestra to Japan, Brazil,  Argentina and South Korea.

With an impressive discography to its name, the Orchestra caused a sensation with its recording of two landmark opuses by Berlioz: Les Troyens, La Damnation de Faust, Les nuits d’été and Harold en Italie, unanimously acclaimed by critics worldwide. This cycle will be pursued with a CD bringing together Roméo et Juliette (2023) and L’Enfance du Christ (2024).

The release of the CD BariTenor with Michael Spyres in September 21 has been also widely acclaimed and awarded.

Aziz Shokhakimov will release his first opus with the Orchestra in May 2023, with works by a composer close to his heart: Tchaikovsky.

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Marko has been invited to guest conduct a number of the world’s most prestigous orchestras, including the Vienna Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Hamburg Symphony, Salzburg Mozarteum, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, and the Berlin Radio Symphony. He has previously held further titled positions, including Chief Conductor of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and Chief Conductor of Sinfonieorchester Basel and the Theater Basel, where he recorded a complete cycle of symphonies by Felix Weingartner and conducted new productions of Tannhäuser, La Traviata, Der Freischütz, Boris Godunov, Tristan und Isolde, Rigoletto, and Don Giovanni.

More recent and forthcoming operatic highlights include a production of Tales of Hoffman at the New National Theatre in Tokyo; a filmed Springtime in Amsterdam at the Dutch National Opera; and productions of Schreker’s Der Schatzgräber and Ginastera’s Beatrice Cenci at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, the latter of which won the Grand Prix for Best Opera Production of the Syndicat Professionnel de la Critique in 2019. An avid enthusiast of the music of Wagner, Marko has also conducted the Ring Cycle at both the Royal Swedish Opera and Teatro Saõ Carlos in Lisbon, as well as productions of Parsifal, Die Walküre, and Götterdämmerung at the Opéra National du Rhin.

Previously, Marko has also conducted at the Vienna State Opera (Queen of Spades and Tales of Hoffman), the Grand Théâtre of Geneva (among others Medea and Manon), the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome (Roméo et Juliette), the Semperoper in Dresden (Nabucco), Teatro alla Scala in Milan (Il dissoluto assolto by José Samarago in combination with Hindemith’s Sancta Susanna; The Makropulos Case as well as Tales of Hoffman), the Staatsoper Berlin (Madama Butterfly), the Deutsche Oper Berlin (La Traviata), the Opéra National du Rhin (Walküre, Götterdämmerung, Der Fliegender Holländer, The Makropulos Case, Queen of Spades), and at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari (Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, and Der Fliegende Holländer).

Marko Letonja began his studies as a pianist and conductor at the Music Academy of Ljubljana and graduated as a student of Otmar Suitner at the Academy of Music and Theatre in Vienna in 1989. Only two years later he became Music Director of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Ljubljana, which he conducted until 2003.  

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2023 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rachmaninov, a composer who is very much close to Lugansky’s heart. During 2023, he will perform all of Rachmaninov’s major solo works in a three-recital cycle in Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris and London’s Wigmore Hall. Further single performances take place in Vienna, Brussels, Berlin, Prague and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. In the summer, Lugansky returns to the US to perform Rachmaninov concertos at the Cleveland Orchestra with Stanislav Kochanovsky and at the Colorado Music Festival with Peter Oundjian. A passionate chamber musician, Lugansky performs this season with Maxim Rysanov, Vadim Repin, and embarks on a duo recital tour of Italy with Gautier Capuçon in January 2023.

Described by Gramophone as “the most trailblazing and meteoric performer of all”, Nikolai Lugansky is a pianist of extraordinary depth and versatility. He appears at some of the world’s most distinguished festivals, including the Aspen, Tanglewood, Ravinia and Verbier festivals. Chamber music collaborators include Vadim Repin, Alexander Kniazev, Mischa Maisky and Leonidas Kavakos.

Nikolai Lugansky has won several awards for his many recordings. His recital CD featuring Rachmaninov’s Piano Sonatas won the Diapason d’Or, whilst his recording of concertos by Grieg and Prokofiev with Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice. Lugansky has an exclusive contract with harmonia mundi and his Rachmaninov’s 24 Preludes, released in April 2018, met with enthusiastic reviews. He was described as having “an ability to enchant the ear… with a deep feeling for the music” (The Financial Times). His recording of solo piano music by Debussy was released in the 2018 anniversary year and his release César Frank, Préludes, Fugues & Chorals (March 2020) won the Diapason d’Or. He most recently released two discs of Beethoven’s Late Piano Sonatas’ and a new recording of Rachmaninov Etudes tableaux comes out in Spring 2023.

Download the full biography on the link above.