The musical director

Marta Gardolińska – Musical Director

Marta Gardolińska, Musical Director of the Opéra national de Lorraine and one of the most promising young conductors, has been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona from the 2022-2023 season.

Before deciding to become a musician, she spent several years training professionally in acrobatics, swimming and middle-distance running, while simultaneously studying the flute and piano. Inspired by the experience of singing in her school choir and fascinated by the colours of symphonic music, her path led her to study conducting at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, and to attend numerous masterclasses and workshops with artists such as Bernard Haitink, Peter Eötvös, Bertrand de Billy, György Kurtág and Marin Alsop.

In Vienna, she was second conductor with the Johann-Strauss-Operette company between 2013 and 2015, familiarising herself with the purest style of the Viennese musical tradition. In 2015, she was appointed conductor in residence of the Akademischer Orchesterverein before taking up the post of chief conductor and artistic director of the TU Orchester for the 2017-2018 season.

Marta Gardolińska rose to international prominence in 2018 as a young conductor, thanks in part to her collaboration with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, which led to a Dudamel Fellowship with the Los Angeles Philharmonic during the 2019-2020 season and her role as Gustavo Dudamel's second conductor on the Grammy Award-winning Deutsche Grammophon live recording of Ives' Symphony No. 4. In August 2022, Marta returned to Los Angeles to make her debut with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

During the 2021-2022 season, Marta Gardolińska made notable debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. She made her Paris debut with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Alongside her work as a symphony conductor, she made her opera conducting debut in Nancy with Zemlinsky's Görge le rêveur during the 2020-2021 season, followed by Messager's Fortunio in 2021-2022. In Strasbourg, she conducted Carmen in December 2021 with Stéphanie d'Oustrac.

Past symphonic highlights include the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in October 2022 with a programme including works by Lili Boulanger, Sergei Rachmaninov and Antonín Dvořák. Other highlights include the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra in September 2022 with Jan Czesław Moniuszko, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann and Gustav Mahler, and the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona in November 2022 with Bomsori Kim on Krzysztof Penderecki, Karol Szymanowski, Arvo Pärt and Igor Stravinsky.

Among her many honours, she won an honourable mention and the special orchestral prize at the Witold Lutosławski Conducting Competition in Białystok, Poland (2016), 3rd prize and the special orchestral prize at the Felix Mendelssohn International Conducting Competition in Thessaloniki (2016) and was one of eight semi-finalists at the 1st Hong Kong International Conducting Competition in 2018. In 2016, Marta Gardolińska was awarded the title of "Outstanding Polish Personality in Austria" for her efforts to popularise Polish culture and music beyond its borders. She was also appointed Associate Fellow from 2017 to 2019 by the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship created by Marin Alsop.

In Nancy, she has conducted various symphonic concerts at Salle Poirel, as well as Zemlinsky's Görge le rêveur, Messager's Fortunio, Paderewski's Manru, Verdi's La Traviata and Haydn's Schöpfung at the Opéra.

Marta Gardolińska has been extended as Musical Director up to and including the 2025-2026 season.