“The colorful and intense sound stays harmonious and balanced even in the largest forte”

Austria’s Martin Sieghart is recognized as one of his country’s most versatile musicians. In addition to his lifelong experience as a conductor from all over the world, he is also a teacher of many successful international students. Martin is the founder and director of several festivals, a former longtime cellist of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and an organist.

Artist Director & Conductor

Sieghart left the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in 1985 to initially work as a freelance conductor.

In 1990 the chance arose to take on a concert with the world-famous “Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra” at short notice. Due to the great success, he was invited to stand in front of the orchestra again soon afterward. And after this second joint music-making, the orchestra chose him as the successor to the founder and long-time chief conductor Karl Münchinger.

Shortly thereafter, it was Mahler’s First Symphony that Sieghart performed in Linz with the Bruckner Orchestra.
They were also looking for a boss and signed Sieghart as opera boss and chief conductor.

Finally, in 2003, due to a long-standing friendship with the Gelders Orkest ( Arnhem, the Netherlands) Sieghart was appointed artistic director of this ensemble.

Guest Conducting

Sieghart has conducted numerous orchestras, including Philharmonia Orchestra London, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Rotterdams Phiharmonisch Orkest, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra Moscow, the radio symphony orchestras of Berlin, Stuttgart, Cologne, and Hanover, the Museum Orchestra Frankfurt and the Residentieorkest Den Haag.
In Austria: Vienna Symphony, Vienna Radio Symphony, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Tonkünstlerorchester Niederösterreich, Wiener Kammerorchester, Wiener Concertverein.

Further collaborations have led him to symphony orchestras from Malaysia, Macao, Sao Paulo, Santiago di Chile, to the Tokyo Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, Japan Century-Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica di Gran Canaria, Orchestra della Toscana, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliano, Philharmonic Orchestras from Ljubljana, Zagreb, Beograd etc.

Exceptional Love for the Strauss Family

Sieghart has an exceptional love for the music of the Strauss family. He directed the Johann Strauss Orchestra during its tour of Japan over four years. He has dedicated concert programs to these composers with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonia, and his own orchestra in Arnhem. At the Leipzig Opera House, he directed a premiere of “Die Fledermaus.”

At the end of his activities in Stuttgart and Linz, he expanded his artistic activities and was appointed Professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz.

Special Projects

In 2003 he became chief conductor of the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra and founded his own open-air festival, ‘Mozart in Reinsberg,’ dedicated to the operas of Mozart.

There was also the special task of being director of the international chamber orchestra ‘Spirit of Europe,’ which recruited members from over ten nations.

In 2012, Sieghart founded the “EntArteOpera” festival together with Susanne Thomasberger and Philipp Harnoncourt. The purpose of this festival was to restore works that had been vilified during the Third Reich as degenerate. The Israel Chamber Orchestra was invited as the festival orchestra, which Sieghart was also the principal guest conductor of during those years.

In 2016 Sieghart concluded his teaching activities as a professor in Graz and became active worldwide as a freelance conductor and pedagogue.

Background

In Vienna, Sieghart studied conducting, cello, piano, and organ. After his studies, he collected valuable experience as the principal cellist of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, which later proved extremely useful. During this period, he was intensely involved in church music.

Furthermore, he has performed as a chamber musician with the “Wiener Instrumentalsolisten,” the “Eurasia-Quartett,” and the “Concentus Musicus” with Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

In 1985 he switched roles from cellist to becoming assistant conductor of G. Rozhdestvensky. After stepping in as a conductor for the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the oldest chamber orchestra in Germany, they appointed him the successor of their legendary chief conductor Karl Münchinger. In 1992 he was also appointed the Chief Conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the Linz Opera House. He has recorded numerous CDs with both orchestras.