Aleksandar Markovic
Aleksandar Markovic will become Music Director of Opera North from September 2016 following on from very successful positions as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra (2009-2015), and Chief Conductor of the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck (2005-2008).
His appointment at Opera North comes after an intensive period of collaboration with the company including conducting this season’s production of Janacek’s Jenufa as well as several concert appearances with the Orchestra of Opera North with repertoire ranging from Mozart through Schumann, Wagner, and Strauss. Other appearances this season have included very successful debuts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, RTE Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, and a return to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Later this season he has further debuts with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Malmö Symphony, and returns to the Qatar Philharmonic and the Brno Philharmonic for concerts both in Brno and at the Vienna Konzerthaus.
During his time with the Brno Philharmonic, and in addition to their annual season, he took the orchestra to Grosses Festspielhaus Salzburg, the Palace of Arts Budapest, Brucknerhaus Linz, the Queen Elisabeth Hall Antwerp, Reduta Hall Bratislava, Passau’s European Weeks festival, and on an extensive tour of Japan. In the autumn of 2014 they performed an all-Wagner programme in Stefaniensaal, Graz, for opening of the Musikverein für Steiermark’s 200th anniversary celebrations.
Aleksandar Markovic also enjoys close collaborations with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Qatar Philharmonic, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Croatian HRT and Prague Radio symphony orchestras, the Slovenian Philharmonic and the Slovak Philharmonic, with whom he recorded the CD ‘Sinful Women’ for Czech national label Supraphon. He recently enjoyed successful debuts with the Wuppertal Opera and Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Symphony Orchestra of Teatro Verdi Trieste, Bremen Philharmonic, Lübeck Philharmonic and Mannheim Chamber Orchestra.
He celebrated the 2013 “Wagner Year” with a new production of Der fliegende Holländer at the Slovenian National Theatre Ljubljana, and a concert performance of Rienzi in Munich’s Philharmonie am Gasteig. Other guest conducting appearances include the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Halle, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, DSO Berlin, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Vienna Chamber Orchestra and Concertverein, Janacek Philharmonic Ostrava, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of St. Gallen, State Orchestra Braunschweig, Belgrade Philharmonic, Zagreb Philharmonic and Kremerata Baltica.
As Chief Conductor of the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck he conducted highly acclaimed productions of Salome, Der fliegende Holländer, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Cavalleria Rusticana/ I Pagliacci, Le nozze di Figaro, Romeo et Juliette, Traviata, Nabucco, Norma, and Swan Lake, as well as many innovative symphonic programmes. He also conducted a new production of La forza del destino at the National Theatre Belgrade, and appeared at the National Theatre Prague and the Landestheater Salzburg.
Aleksandar Markovic commands a wide range of symphonic and operatic repertoire, ranging from Classic and Romantic to contemporary styles. His keen interest in 20th-century and avant- garde music has led to performances of works by the likes of Hartmann, Schiske, Istvan, Rozsa, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Glass, D’Ase, Pintscher, Larcher, Tüür, Yusupov and Salonen.
Born in Belgrade, and a graduate of Leopold Hager’s conducting class at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, Aleksandar Markovic also attended masterclasses at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, where he was awarded a Diploma d’onore. He gained a scholarship from the Herbert von Karajan Foundation Berlin, and won First Prize at the 7th “Gregorz Fitelberg” International Conducting Competition in Katowice, Poland.
For more information: www.aleksandar-markovic.com