Music Director of Theatre Basel and recently announced as the new Chief Conductor of Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, we are delighted to announce that award-winning conductor Kristiina Poska has joined our roster for general management. This season saw Kristiina debut with English National Opera in a production of Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with Fondazione del Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, a programme of Penderecki, Haydn and Brahms with Komische Oper Berlin, and will see her perform at the Festival Berlioz with Orchestre national de Lyon in August. 
 
Upcoming highlights include Theatre Basel’s New Year Concert with Sinfonieorchester Basel and productions of La Bohème and Peter Grimes, a production of Carmen with Staatsoper Stuttgart, the opening concert of the Mozart Week 2020 in Salzburg with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden, and her inaugural concert as Chief Conductor with Flanders Symphony Orchestra in October. 

Kristiina is an internationally sought-after concert and opera conductor and has appeared with Komische Oper Berlin, Symphonieorchester Bern, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Semperoper Dresden, English National Opera Orchestra; with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, Leipzig, Frankfurt am Main and Vienna; Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Gothenburg Symphony, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Münchner Philharmoniker, Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich, Camerata Salzburg at Wiener Konzerthaus, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Volksoper Vienna, Tonhalle-Orchestra Zürich, amongst others. 
 
Having studied choral conducting at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn, and orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin, Kristiina then went on to win the audience prize at the renowned Malko Competition in May 2012 and the prestigious German Conductors’ Prize in April 2013. Previous roles have included Principal Conductor of Cappella Academica from 2006 to 2011, and First Kapellmeister at Komische Oper Berlin from 2012/13.