Jun Markl conductor

Jun Märkl is Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony, and 10/11 marks his sixth and final season as Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon:

"One can judge the full extent of the work accomplished by Jun Maerkl over the past few seasons: he has brought to the ONL that particular German sound which is essential for any great orchestra – a sensuality which issues from the depths of the music, and which is rooted in the work's architecture. Thanks to Jun Maerkl, the ONL is one of the very best orchestras in Europe."

Liberation, December 2009

Highlights of his tenure in Lyon include an acclaimed Debussy cycle for Naxos, and touring to major European halls and festivals such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, BBC Proms, Bad Kissingen, Rheingau and Luzern and to the Salle Pleyel every season. Märkl and the ONL have also toured Japan where they return in June 2011 for a farewell tour.

Märkl and his Leipzig orchestra toured to Spain and the Baltics last season, besides their regular appearances in the Berlin Konzerthaus and Cologne Philharmonie. Programming across the season focused on the music of Robert Schumann (a native of Saxony, and a composer close to Märkl's heart) – culminating in performances with the MDR Chorus of Schumann's rarely-heard opera Genoveva at the Rotterdam Opera Festival and in Leipzig; a project which Märkl repeated at the Salle Pleyel with the Orchestre National de Lyon. Schumann also features alongside Mendelssohn in the MDR's recording plans with Märkl for Naxos.

Märkl has conducted many leading German orchestras, most recently the Munich Philharmonic, Gurzenich Orchester Cologne and the Radio Sinfonie Orchester Berlin. Before assuming the musical directorship in Lyon, he was a regular guest with the Orchestre de Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He has also conducted orchestras in Scandinavia (Helsinki Philharmonic, Danish Radio), the UK (City of Birmingham Symphony, Royal Scottish National, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic), and the Netherlands (Rotterdam and Netherlands Philharmonic and the Dutch Radio Philharmonic). Last season he conducted the Zurich Tonhalle Orchester for the first time and made his Grafenegg Festival debut; in 10/11 he conducts the Czech Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony, all for the first time.

Every season he conducts the NHK Symphony, with whom in 2006 he recorded the complete Schumann symphonies as part of an ongoing commitment to EXTON Records. He also appears regularly with the Mito Chamber Orchestra and has conducted several times at the Pacific Music Festival. Between 2001 and 2004 he conducted Japan's first-ever complete Ring cycle with the NHK and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestras.

Märkl was until 2006 Permanent Conductor of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He conducted a complete Ring Cycle at the Deutsche Oper, has also been a regular guest at the Berlin State Opera, Vienna State Opera and the Semper Oper Dresden with whom he toured to Japan in November 2007, conducting Tannhäuser. He made his Royal Opera House debut with Götterdämmerung in 1996 and at the Metropolitan Opera with Il Trovatore in 1998.

Märkl has conducted many of North America's top orchestras including those of Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Minnesota, St. Louis, Washington NSO, Baltimore, Montreal, Toronto, Seattle, Atlanta and Dallas, and maintains continuing relationships with several of them – returning this season to Dallas, Atlanta and to the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Born in Munich, his (German) father was a distinguished Concertmaster and his (Japanese) mother a solo pianist. Märkl studied violin, piano and conducting at the Musikhochschule in Hannover, going on to study with Sergiu Celibidache in Munich and with Gustav Meier in Michigan. In 1986 he won the conducting competition of the Deutsche Musikrat and a year later won a scholarship from the Boston Symphony Orchestra to study at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. Soon afterwards he had a string of appointments in European opera houses followed by his first music directorships at the Staatstheater in Saarbrücken (1991-94) and at the Mannheim Nationaltheater (1994-2000).

August 2010

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Visit Jun Markl at http://www.junmarkl.com/

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