Martynas Stakionis

The Lithuanian conductor Martynas Stakionis has established himself as one of the most dynamic and promising conductors of his generation. Since his debut with the Kaunas State Philharmonic in April 2014, he has performed with the Frankfurt Alte Oper, the Mozarteum Orchestra, the Hamburger Symphoniker, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuanian National Opera Symphony Orchestra, the Kremerata Baltica, and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra.

In 2018, Stakionis received the Norwegian Critics’ Association Award for the best musical performance of the season, conducting Sofia Gubaidulina’s Fachwerk with the Kremerata Baltica at the Bergen Music Festival.

He has developed a close relationship with Gidon Kremer, collaborating with the Kremerata Baltica at the Kronberg Academy Festival, the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Dvořákova Praha, and the Auditorium de la Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, where he conducted the French premiere of Greater Antiphons by Arvo Pärt, a performance recorded by Medici.tv.

In 2022, Stakionis assisted conductor Laurence Equilbey in various projects with the Insula Orchestra at La Seine Musicale à Paris.

From 2016 to 2018, he served as assistant conductor at the Hamburg Chamber Opera and supported Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla in productions of Haydn’s Il mondo della luna and Max Brand’s Stürmisches Zwischenspiel at the Salzburg State Theater.

In November 2021, Stakionis made his debut at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet, conducting performances of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht. He is currently the artistic director of an ambitious international opera program in Lithuania, the Opera Accelerator, in collaboration with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra.

Stakionis also collaborates with other leading Lithuanian orchestras and performs with them annually. Drawing from his rich choral background in his youth, he has conducted the Latvian and Lithuanian State Choirs, the Children’s Choir of the Paris National Opera, and the Hannover Girls’ Choir.

He has achieved success in several competitions, including winning the Fifth Jazeps Vitols Choral Conducting Competition in 2014.