The award-winning conductor Kristiina Poska is in high demand on the international music scene. She has held the post of chief conductor of the Flanders Symphony Orchestra since the 2019–20 season and principal guest conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra since 2021–22, and she began her tenure as music director of Orchestre Français des Jeunes in summer 2025. She studied choral conducting at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn and orchestral conducting at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. Poska was a finalist at the renowned Donatella Flick London Symphony Orchestra Competition in 2010 and at the Malko Competition in May 2012, where she also won the audience prize. She then went on to win the prestigious German Conductors’ Prize in April 2013.
This season’s highlights include several debuts — with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Colorado Symphony in North America, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi and Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao in Spain, the Swedish Radio and Norwegian Radio symphony orchestras in Scandinavia, as well as Orchestre national de Montpellier, Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Grazer Philharmoniker. During the concert season, she returns to the Orchestre National de France and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and she tours with the Flanders Symphony Orchestra several times, performing in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Estonia. As the new music director of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes, she embarked on two European tours at the end of the summer of 2025.
Recent highlights include debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Nacionales de España and NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. She has appeared with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Additionally, Poska has worked with orchestras such as hr-Sinfonieorchester, Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, Gothenburg Symphony, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, to name a few.
Equally prolific in the operatic repertoire, Poska debuts at the Opéra de Dijon this season, conducting a double bill production featuring Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Strauss’ Metamorphosen directed by Dominique Pitoiset. Recent opera productions include a return to Staatsoper Berlin with a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Così fan tutte at Norwegian National Opera and Royal Danish Theatre, Puccini’s La bohème by Robert Carsen at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Carmen with Staatsoper Stuttgart and Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Semperoper). She has appeared with Komische Oper Berlin, Royal Swedish Opera, English National Opera, Finnish National Opera, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Volksoper Vienna, among others.
Poska’s previous roles have included principal conductor of Cappella Academica 2006–11, Kapellmeister at Komische Oper Berlin 2012–16 and music director for Theater Basel 2019–20.
Together with the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Poska is recording the complete Beethoven cycle for the label Fuga Libera. kristiinaposka.com