Markus Poschner

Since taking over as principal conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz in 2017, Markus Poschner and the top Austrian ensemble have enthused audiences and the international press alike. His foremost vision is to find new Bruckner interpretations. In 2020 he and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz received the Austrian awards ‘Orchestra of the Year’ and ‘Conductor of the Year’.

Markus Poschner’s recording of the complete Brahms symphonies for Sony Classical with the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, whose chief conductor he has been since 2015, featured a completely new reading of these works and promptly won the prestigious International Classical Music Award (ICMA) in 2018. His recording of Offenbach’s Maître Péronilla with the Orchestre National de France was celebrated by the press, also winning the German Record Critics’ Award in 2021. In 2024, Markus Poschner received Special Achievement Award by the Jury of the International Classical Music Awards for his monumental cycle of the complete Bruckner Symphonies edition with Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.

As of the 2025/26 season, Markus Poschner will become Chief Conductor of the Basel Symphony Orchestra with whom he has proclaimed the credo of ‘touching people with our music and intensity.’

Since winning the German Conductors Award, Markus Poschner has made guest appearances at many internationally renowned orchestras and opera houses, including Staatskapelle Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, Staatskapelle Dresden, Münchner Philharmoniker, Dresdner Philharmonie, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, RSB Berlin, Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Netherlands Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, NHK Tokio and Utah Symphony Orchestra as well as being present at Opera houses in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Zurich. After studying in Munich and assisting Sir Roger Norrington and Sir Colin Davis, Markus Poschner worked as 1st Kapellmeister at the Komische Oper Berlin. From 2007 to 2017, he was GMD of the Bremen Philharmonic. In July 2010, the University of Bremen appointed him honorary professor, a title also given to him by Anton Bruckner University Linz in 2020.

Markus Poschner conducted the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra for the first time at its extraordinary guest performance in Abu- Dhabi 2019 with Wagner’s Walküre. In July 2022 he opened the Bayreuth Festival conducting Tristan und Isolde and returned there for the revival of the production in 2023.

Bruckner Orchester Linz

The Bruckner Orchester Linz, which looks back upon more than 200 years of history and tradition and officially adopted its current name in 1967, has developed into one of the leading orchestras in central Europe during recent decades. The members of BOL constitute not only the symphony orchestra of the state of upper Austria, but also the featured orchestra for musical productions at the State Theatre in Linz. Its home is the Musiktheater building, opened in 2013, one of the most modern theatre buildings in Europe. The orchestra presents concerts at the International Bruckner Festival in Linz, concert cycles at the Brucknerhaus, and the ‘Grand Concert Night’ at the Ars Electronica Festival.

As an ambassador of upper Austria and of its namesake, the BOL appears regularly on international stages. During recent years it toured the USA, Japan and numerous European countries. During its history, the orchestra has been led by guest conductors such as Clemens Krauss, Hans Knappertsbusch, Sergiu Celibidache, Kurt Eichhorn, Václav Neumann and Christoph von Dohnányi, and more recently by Zubin Mehta, Serge Baudo, Horst Stein, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Michael Gielen, Bernhard Klee, Steven Sloane, Stanislaw Skrowaczewksi, Michael Schønwandt and Franz Welser- Möst; its style was shaped by chief conductors such as Theodor Guschlbauer, Manfred Mayrhofer, Martin Sieghart and Dennis Russell Davies.

Since Markus Poschner became its chief conductor in the autumn of 2017, this orchestra has been undergoing an unprecedented process of opening toward the outside, generating many new concert formats, seeking out unexpected performance places, finding surprising pathways in education, and first and foremost offering artistic events which meet with high resonance from audience and press due to their immediacy and intensity. Markus Poschner and the BOL are exploring their very own version of the music of the orchestra’s namesake, rendering it in an unmistakable, upper Austrian musical dialect, most recently manifested in a benchmark recording of the Eighth Symphony. Since 2012 the Bruckner Orchester Linz has had its own concert cycle at Vienna’s Musikverein; from 2020, this was joined by another cycle at the Brucknerhaus in Linz. The BOL was honoured with the “Best Orchestra of the Year” award at the 2020 Austrian Musical Theatre Awards.

ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

The ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra is a top orchestra recognized throughout the world that feels obliged to the Viennese tradition of orchestral performance. Since September 2019, Marin Alsop assumes the position of principal conductor. The Vienna RSO is well-known for its unusual and courageous programming. Frequently, the Classical and Romantic repertoire and works of Classical Modernism are placed in an unexpected context by combining them with contemporary pieces and rarely performed works from different periods.

All the performances are broadcast on radio, especially on the station Ö1, but also abroad. Afterwards, the concerts by the Vienna RSO can be heard for a week on the media player of Ö1. With its growing presence on European television and its co-operation with the youth station FM4, the Vienna RSO continuously reaches new music lovers. Many fans support the club ‘Freundin des RSO’.

Of the many CD releases, may the three-part CD box entitled Martinů: The Symphonies be mentioned, which was awarded the prestigious ICMA in the category ‘Symphonic Music’ in 2018. Three CDs of the Vienna RSO received an ‘Opus Klassik’, recently 2020 for a part of the complete recording of all symphonies of Heinz Winbeck.

In Vienna, the RSO regularly performs two subscribers’ cycles in the Musikverein and the Konzerthaus. Beyond that, the orchestra annually appears at major festivals in Austria and abroad. There are close links to the Salzburg Festival, to the musikprotokoll at the Styrian Autumn and to Wien Modern. Tours regularly take the RSO to Japan and China as well as to the USA, South America, Spain, Italy and Germany. Since 2007, the Vienna RSO has established itself as an opera orchestra with its continuously successful co-operation with the Theater an der Wien. Among others, the Vienna RSO performed Weber’s Euryanthe at the Theater an der Wien.