©Photo: Kaupo Kikkas

Kristiina Poska

Conductor

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Chief Conductor — Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen
Principal Guest Conductor – Latvian National Symphony Orchestra
Music Director — Orchestre Français des Jeunes (from 2025)

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 Principal Guest Conductor of Latvian National Symphony Orchestra since 2021/22. She studied choral conducting at Estonian Academy of Music and Theater in Tallinn, and orchestral conducting at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin. Poska was a finalist at the renowned Donatella Flick LSO Competition in 2010 and at Malko Competition in May 2012 where she also won the audience prize. She then went on to win the prestigious German Conductors’ Prize in April 2013.

This season’s highlights include several debuts – Oregon Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra in the United States, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra in the United Kingdom, and Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orquesta Nacionales de España, Frankfurt Museumsorchester as well as NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. During the concert season, she will return to WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Orchestre National de France, Hallé Orchestra and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. Poska tours with Flanders Symphony Orchestra several times during the season performing in the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France.

Past highlights include debuts with BBC Philharmonic and BBC Scottish Symphony, Royal Concertgebouworkest, Orchestre National de Lille, Aalborg Symfoniorkester, and returns to Oslo Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and MDR Sinfonieorchester. Additionally, Poska has worked with orchestras such as hr-Sinfonieorchester, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Gothenburg, Tokyo and Estonian National symphony orchestras, Münchner Philharmoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Camerata Salzburg, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich to name a few.

Equally prolific in the operatic repertoire — this season Poska returns to Staatsoper Berlin to conduct a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Recent opera productions include Così fan tutte at Royal Danish Theatre, Puccini’s La bohème by Robert Carsen at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Carmen with Staatsoper Stuttgart, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Semperoper). 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 among others.

Poska’s previous roles have included Principal Conductor of Cappella Academica from 2006 to 2011, 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 and 7 released on Fuga Libera/Outhere is the fruit of her successful collaboration with Flanders Symphony Orchestra.