Jun Markl

Jun Märkl built an international reputation as a conductor of the first rank through engagements with leading orchestras and opera companies across Europe and farther afield. Although his reputation rests chiefly on authoritative readings of the German canon, he also maintains a profound affinity for the French impressionists. His discography is extensive, and as of the mid-2020s he holds the posts of chief conductor or music director with the Residentie Orchestra Den Haag, the Malaysian Philharmonic, the Taiwan Philharmonic, and the Indianapolis Symphony.

Born in Munich on February 11, 1959, Märkl grew up in a musical household; his father played the violin and his mother the piano. He began serious study of both instruments at an early age. In 1978 he entered the Hannover Musikhochschule, continuing his training in violin and piano while taking conducting lessons with Sergiu Celibidache. He later pursued advanced conducting studies with Gustav Meier at the University of Michigan. Märkl first attracted widespread attention in 1986 by winning the Deutsche Musikrat conducting competition. The following year he received a Boston Symphony Orchestra fellowship to Tanglewood, where he worked with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. After appearing in several European opera houses, he secured his initial music directorship in 1991 at the Saarbrücken Staatstheater. He left that post in 1994 to become music director of the Mannheim Nationaltheater, remaining there until 2000. Märkl made his Royal Opera House debut in 1996 conducting Wagner’s Götterdämmerung and his Metropolitan Opera debut two years later with Verdi’s Il Trovatore. During the same period he appeared regularly at the opera houses of Vienna, Berlin, Munich, and Dresden, and he led complete Ring cycles at both the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Tokyo’s New National Theatre.

In 2005 Märkl was appointed music director of the Orchestre National de Lyon. During his tenure he recorded the complete orchestral works of Debussy and took the orchestra on tours throughout Europe and Japan, serving until 2011. While still in Lyon he was named principal conductor of the MDR Symphony Orchestra in 2007, a position he held until 2012. From 2014 to 2017 he served as principal conductor of the Basque National Orchestra, initiating a survey of Toshio Hosokawa’s orchestral music in 2014. In 2019 he released two Naxos albums: Albert Lortzing’s opera overtures with the Malmö Opera Orchestra and Saint-Saëns’s ballet Ascanio with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra.

Märkl was appointed principal guest conductor of the Residentie Orchestra Den Haag in 2021 and elevated to chief conductor in 2023, the appointment commencing in 2025. He assumed the music directorship of the Malaysian Philharmonic in 2021 and took the same role with the Taiwan Philharmonic the following year. In 2024 he became music director of the Indianapolis Symphony. He has made more than fifty recordings, chiefly for Naxos, encompassing complete cycles of Debussy and Hosokawa as well as the symphonies of Robert Schumann with the NHK Symphony.