BIOGRAPHY

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Praised for his “love of detail... and great meticulousness”, Lithuanian conductor Martynas Stakionis has emerged as one of the most promising conductors of his generation. In 2014, he debuted conducting at the Kaunas State Philharmonic. Since then, he has performed at and with Mozarteum Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony, RTE Concert, Lithuanian National Symphony, Lithuanian National Opera & Ballet symphony, St. Gallen Symphony, I Pomeriggi Musicali, Schleswig-Holstein State Theater Symphony, Kremerata Baltica and Lithuanian Chamber orchestras.

In 2018, Stakionis received the Norwegian Critics Association award for Best Music Performance of the Season for Gubaidulina’s Fachwerk, with Kremerata Baltica at the Bergen Music Festival. He has developed a strong relationship with Gidon Kremer through his partnership with Kremerata Baltica at the Kronberg Academy Festival, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Dvorakova Praha and the Auditorium de la Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris, where he conducted the French premiere of Greater Antiphons by Arvo Pärt, which was recorded by Medici TV. Stakionis also serves as guest conductor at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic and has conducted and recorded numerous concerts with both orchestras since his debut in 2015.

In November 2021, Martynas made his debut at the Lithuanian National Opera & Ballet, conducting performances of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps and Schönberg’s Transfigured Night.

From 2021 to 2023, Martynas Stakionis was the Artistic Director for the Opera Accelerator, an ambitious international opera program, in cooperation with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra.

In 2022, Stakionis assisted conductor Laurence Equilbey in various projects with the Insula Orchestra in La Seine Musicale à Paris. Assistant Conductor at the Hamburg Chamber Opera Theater from 2016 to 2018, he has also assisted Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla at the Salzburg State Theatre’s productions of Haydn’s Il Mondo della Luna and Max Brand’s Stormy Interlude. In 2023, Stakionis was Assistant Conductor for productions of Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen and A. Berg’s Lulu, with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and ORF Vienna Radio Symphony at the Musiktheater an der Wien.

In the 2025/26 season, Martynas Stakionis is appointed as Opera Artistic Director of the Lithuanian National Opera & Ballet, where he will conduct Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s Il Trittico - Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi.

Highlights of M. Stakionis’ 2024/25 season include Martynas Christma’s concerts at the Theater St. Gallen, conducting Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suites No. 1 and 2, and Glière’s Harp Concerto Op. 74; J. Strauss II’s Das Spitzentuch der Königin, at the Musiktheater an der Wien (this production won the Operetta Award by BR-KLASSIK); Heggie’s Dead Man walking, at the Schleswig-Holstein Theatre; and a revival of Offenbach’s Talles of Hoffmann, at the LNOBT.

In the 2023/24 season, he conducted Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, at the Lithuanian National Opera; Verdi’s La Traviata, Leipold’s Der goldene Brunnen and Sweeney Todd, at the Schleswig-Holstein Theatre; and Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 in C and Sinfonietta Concertante in E-flat, at Vilnius and Kaunas State Philharmonic halls along with Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra. In the summer of 2024 Stakionis debuted with I Pomeriggi Musicali conducting at Garda Lake Music Festival and with RTE Concert Symphony Orchestra conducting a concert at National Concert Hall in Dublin.

Steeped in a rich choral background from an early age, Stakionis has conducted the Latvian and Lithuanian State Choirs, Latvian Radio Choir, Paris National Opera Children's Choir and Hannover Mädchenchor, winning and being laureate in several competitions, most notably as the winner of the 5th Jazeps Vitols Choral Conductors Competition, in 2014.

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