Intelligent clarity and a profound and always curious musicality characterise Markus Stenz's work. He has held numerous important positions with international orchestras and opera houses, including Principal Conductor of the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister, Principal Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta, Principal Guest Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé Orchestra, Conductor in Residence with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Montepulciano Festival.
As an opera conductor, he has conducted numerous premieres, including the world premiere of György Kurtág's opera "Fin de Partie" at La Scala in Milan and Amsterdam's Dutch National Opera, Hans Werner Henze's "Das verratene Meer" in Berlin, "Venus und Adonis" at the Bavarian State Opera and "L' Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe" at the Salzburg Festival. He recently returned to the Bavarian State Opera for Franz Schreker's "Die Gezeichneten". He has made guest appearances at major international opera houses such as Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, English National Opera, Lyric Opera Chicago, San Francisco and LA Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Oper Frankfurt and at international festivals such as the Glyndebourne Festival, Edinburgh International Festival and the Bregenz and Salzburg Festivals.
Markus Stenz has conducted the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and others.
Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Staatskapelle and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra and the BR, HR, WDR, NDR and MDR radio orchestras. In the USA he has worked with the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston, among others.
Highlights of the 2020/21 season included the CD release of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, performances of Kurtág's "Fin de Partie" at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, and concerts with the MDR Symphony Orchestra and the Dortmund Philharmonic. Despite the Corona pandemic, Markus Stenz has given numerous concerts in Asia in Seoul and Taiwan and has been a guest at the Teatro La Fenice on several occasions.
In the current 2021/22 season he will conduct Britten's "Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the French premiere of Kurtág's "Fin de Partie" at the Opéra National de Paris. Other guest conducting engagements include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra dell'Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Orchestre National de Lyon.
His extensive discography includes the Gramophone Classical Music Award for his recording of Schönberg's Gurre-Lieder with the Gürzenich Orchestra.