Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Markus Poschner has been named the new music director for the Utah Symphony.
- He impressed musicians and audiences during guest visits in 2022 and 2023.
- Poschner will share duties with orchestras in Linz and Basel before a full-time Utah role in 2027.
SALT LAKE CITY – Following an international search that took more than a year, the Utah Symphony/Utah Opera announced a new music director.
KSL-TV was given the exclusive opportunity to travel to Austria to meet the new man at the podium.
Markus Poschner's star has been on the rise for the last decade, leading orchestras throughout Europe and catching the attention of the Utah Symphony.
He came to guest conduct the Utah Symphony in both 2022 and 2023.
The symphony said particularly during his second visit, the reaction was hugely positive from both the musicians and the audience.
"He brings such an incredible, dynamic energy to the podium, a real sort of electrifying vitality," said Madeline Adkins, concertmaster and a musician representative on the Music Director Search Committee. "What a way to start out with him! That is where the magic is, for me, is in those unexpected, beautiful moments, and I know that our audience has sensed that as well."
Following the 2023 visit, in a Utah Symphony Audience Survey, attendees described him as "brilliant," "thrilling," "exuberant," "phenomenal," "very emotional," and "the conductor's evident love of the music. Just hire him now as the new conductor."
"The audience response, the response on stage, the musical response in particular, has been really poignant, and that was very telling along the way, certainly set him apart from many, many other people," said Steve Brosvik, president & CEO of the Utah Symphony/Utah Opera.
From Austria to Utah
KSL met up with Poschner in Austria earlier this month, first in Vienna and then in Linz.
A poster featuring him hung outside the famed concert hall Musikverein in Vienna, promoting an upcoming concert.
The city is both the home of the great composers of classical music and a vibrant city on the cutting edge of modern culture.
Poschner, who has been the chief conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz since 2017, draws musical inspiration from those surroundings.
He loves his musicians in Linz, Austria.
"Mutual respect is the foundation, is the basis, the absolute base of working together, because we – I'm always as a conductor, try to find a bond of trust," he said.
And he says there was something immediate that happened as a guest conductor with the Utah Symphony.
"That was (my) very first American orchestra," he said. "But I had immediately the idea, let's go in… let's build something. Let's grow something on that foundation that's a brilliant base."
"I'm not coming with answers. It's not just for me. We have to ask ourselves the same questions and finally, sharing our joy and enthusiasm and our passion with the audience – that's what all it is about," he said. "Let's see what we can get out of a score, what is hidden, which secrets are there. And it's an unlimited journey. And so that's, I'm really so excited to start this trip together with these fantastic musicians in Utah."
"He really likes this orchestra. He is so impressed with the musicianship within the orchestra, with the level of artistry. And he sees an opportunity to take them as far as they want to go," said Pat Richards, a Utah Symphony/Utah Opera trustee and chair of the Music Director Search Committee.
Planning for the future
The Utah Symphony will share Maestro Poschner with his Bruckner Orchestra in Linz and with the Basel Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland for two years. He will come to Utah full-time in the 2027-2028 season.
Brosvik said the arrangement is not an unusual one in the music world, where conductors are in great demand.
"We'll have to build up to the number of weeks that we have him in the city with us every year, and that's the same as it was with Thierry Fisher. Thierry's first season, he had one week with us. With Maestro Poschner, we have two weeks this year. We'll have four next year, and we'll continue to build," he said.
Poschner agrees.
"It's creating something new, creating a new image, a new picture of society, of community, and I'm excited to experience this in Utah."
KSL-TV will air a half-hour special at 9 a.m. on Sunday called "The Soundtrack of Tomorrow."
