©Photo: Kaupo Kikkas

Kristiina Poska

Conductor

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Chief Conductor — Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen
Principal Guest Conductor – Latvian National Symphony Orchestra

The award-winning conductor Kristiina Poska is in high demand on the international music scene. She has held the post of Chief Conductor of Flanders Symphony Orchestra since 2019/20 season and will take up the post of Principal Guest Conductor of Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 2021/22. Having studied choral conducting at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater in Tallinn, and orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin. Poska was a finalist at the renowned Donatella Flick LSO Competition in 2010 and at the Malko Competition in May 2012 where she won the audience prize. She then went on to win the prestigious German Conductors’ Prize in April 2013.

This season’s highlights include Poska making her debuts with the Royal Concertgebouworkest, Orchestre National de Lille, Aalborg Symfoniorkester, the Hallé, Minnesota Orchestra; at Staatsoper Berlin to conduct a production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte by Yuval Sharon, and at Opera Vlaanderen to conduct a production of Puccini’s La bohème by Robert Carsen. She also returns to Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, MDR Sinfonieorchester and Västerås Sinfonietta.

Past seasons’ highlights include conducting Orchestre National de France at Festival Présences, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava at the Leoš Janáček International Music Festival, and the opening concert of the Mozart Week 2020 in Salzburg with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg. Additionally, Poska worked with orchestras such as hr-Sinfonieorchester, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Gothenburg Symphony, Tokyo, Estonian National Symphony Orchestras, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Münchner Philharmoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich, Camerata Salzburg, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.

Equally prolific in the operatic repertoire, Poska conducted productions of Carmen with Staatsoper Stuttgart, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Semperoper) in recent seasons. She has appeared with Komische Oper Berlin, Royal Swedish Opera, Norwegian Opera, Semperoper Dresden, English National Opera, Finnish National Opera, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Staatsoper Stuttgart and Volksoper Vienna.

Poska’s previous roles have included Principal Conductor of Cappella Academica from 2006 to 2011, and Kapellmeister at Komische Oper Berlin from 2012 to 2016, and Music Director for Theater Basel for the 2019/20 season. Poska’s latest recording of Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 1&7 released on Fuga Libera/Outhere is the fruit of her successful collaboration with the Flanders Symphony Orchestra.