Kristiina Poska

Chief Conductor — Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen
Principal Guest Conductor – Latvian National Symphony Orchestra
Music Director — Orchestre Français des Jeunes (from 2025)

The award-winning conductor Kristiina Poska is in high demand on the international music scene. She has held the post of Chief Conductor of Flanders Symphony Orchestra since 2019/20 season, Principal Guest Conductor of Latvian National Symphony Orchestra since 2021/22 and will start her tenure as Music Director of Orchestre Français des Jeunes in Summer 2025. She studied choral conducting at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater in Tallinn and orchestral conducting at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin. Poska was a finalist at the renowned Donatella Flick LSO Competition in 2010 and at the Malko Competition in May 2012, where she also won the audience prize. She then went on to win the prestigious German Conductors’ Prize in April 2013.

This season’s highlights include several debuts – with Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Colorado Symphony in North America, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi and Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao in Spain, Swedish Radio and Norwegian Radio Symphony orchestras in Scandinavia as well as Orchestre National de Montpellier, Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Grazer Philharmoniker. During the concert season, she returns to Orchestre National de France, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and tours with Flanders Symphony Orchestra several times performing in Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany and Estonia. As the new Music Director of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes, she embarks on two European tours at the end of the summer.

Kristiina Poska 14 © Kaupo Kikkas — Kristiina Poska © Kaupo Kikkas

Recent highlights include debuts with Minnesota Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Nacionales de España, as well as NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. She has appeared with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Additionally, Poska has worked with orchestras such as hr-Sinfonieorchester, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Gothenburg Symphony, The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich to name a few.

Equally prolific in the operatic repertoire, Poska debuts at the Opéra de Dijon this season, conducting a double bill production featuring Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Strauss’ Metamorphosen directed by Dominique Pitoiset. Recent opera productions include a return to Staatsoper Berlin with a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Così fan tutte at Norwegian National Opera and Royal Danish Theatre, Puccini’s La bohème by Robert Carsen at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Carmen with Staatsoper Stuttgart, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Semperoper). She has appeared with Komische Oper Berlin, Royal Swedish Opera, English National Opera, Finnish National Opera, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and Volksoper Vienna among others.

Poska’s previous roles included Principal Conductor of Cappella Academica from 2006 to 2011, Kapellmeister at Komische Oper Berlin from 2012 to 2016, and Music Director for Theater Basel for the 2019/20 season. Together with Flanders Symphony Orchestra Poska currently records the complete Beethoven cycle for the label Fuga Libera.