About Markus Stenz

After his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Köln with Volker Wangenheim and a scholarship in Tanglewood, including courses with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, Markus Stenz became music director of the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte in Montepulciano (1989–95) and principal conductor of the London Sinfonietta (1994–1998). In 1998 Markus Stenz was named artistic director and principal conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. After a period of intense work in Australia and the United States, despite being in demand worldwide, the conductor has been concentrating more recently in Europe again, as kapellmeister of the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln since the 2003–4 season and becoming general music director of Oper Köln the following year.
Markus Stenz has conducted not only operas by Mozart, Rossini, Weill, Zender, Zemlinsky, and Stravinsky but also a well-regarded production of Rihm’s "Die Eroberung von Mexiko". Since his debut at the Oper Köln with Beethoven’s "Fidelio" he enjoyed successes in the 2004–5 season with Strauss’s "Salome", Glanert’s "Scherz, Satire, Ironie und tiefere Bedeutung", and Mozart’s "Idomeneo".
Markus Stenz feels a particularly affinity with the music of Hans Werner Henze. In 1990 he conducted the world première of "Das verratene Meer" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Italian première of the same work at La Scala in Milan and the American première at the San Francisco Opera. In 1997 he conducted the première of "Venus und Adonis" at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. In summer 2003 he led the première of Henze’s "L’Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe" with the Wiener Philharmoniker at the Salzburg Festival.