Martin Sieghart is one of the most versatile musicians of his country. He is a conductor of worldwide demand, a teacher of many successful international students, the founder and director of several festivals, a former longstanding principal cellist of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, organist, repetiteur and has acted as a moderator on the piano for his own Opera and Orchestral projects. He also played a lot of chamber music with the Wiener Instrumentalists, the Eurasia Quartett, and Concentus Musicus with Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Orchestras
Sieghart has conducted numerous orchestras, including: Philharmonia Orchestra London, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, Rotterdams Phiharmonisch Orkest, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra Moscow, the radio symphony orchestras of Berlin, Stuttgart, Cologne and Hanover, the Museum Orchestra Frankfurt and the Residentie Orkest Den Haag. In Austria: Vienna Symphony, Vienna Radio Symphony, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Tonkünstlerorchester Niederösterreich, Wiener Kammerorchester, Wiener Concertverein.
Further collaborations have led him to symphony orchestras from Malaysia, Macao, Sao Paulo, Santiago di Chile, to the Tokyo Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, Japan Century-Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica di Gran Canaria, Orchestra della Toscana, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliano, Philharmonic Orchestras from Ljubljana, Zagreb, Beograd etc.
Chief conductor
In 1985 he exchanged his cello for assistantship with G. Rozhdestvensky. When he had to fill in at the last minute with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the oldest chamber orchestra in Germany, he was named successor to the legendary chief conductor Karl Münchinger. In 1992 he became principal conductor of the Bruckner Orchester Linz and the Opera of Linz. He has recorded many CDs with both orchestras.
Repertoire
Sieghart has an exceptional love for the music of the Strauss family. He directed the Johann Strauss Orchestra during its tour of Japan over four years. He has dedicated concert programmes to these composers with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonia and his own Gelders Orchestra in Arnhem. He conducted Die Fledermaus at the Leipzig opera house.
Music festivals
At the end of his activities in Stuttgart and Linz he expanded his artistic activities and was appointed Professor at the University of Music and Peforming Arts, Graz. In 2003 he became chief conductor of the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra and founded his own open air festival, 'Mozart in Reinsberg', dedicated to the operas of Mozart.
Martin Sieghart was director of the international chamber orchestra Spirit of Europe consisting of musicians from more than 10 nationalities. In 2012, Sieghart founded the “EntArteteOpera” Festival together with Susanne Thomasberger and Philipp Harnoncourt. The aim of this festival was to bring back attention to Entartete works, which had been banned by the Nazis during the Second World War. The Israeli Chamber Orchestra was invited as the orchestra of the festival and Sieghart was principal guest conductor during those years.
In the 15/16 season, Sieghart said goodbye to the Conservatory and focused entirely on conducting again. Sieghart also wrote a book “Anleitung zum Unglucklichsein eines Dirigenten”, with experiences from his career, both funny and challenging, and as a lesson on how young conductors can deal with this.
Reviews
“Sieghart is known for his calm and measured basic tempo, which leaves much room for a passionate expression of emotions. Even in the largest forte, the colorful and intense sound stays harmonious and balanced.”
--- Nikkei, Tokyo on Bruckner 4 with NHK-Symphony Orchestra
“Sieghart build up with the marvelous and convincing strings, a typical German romantic sound, which suited exactly to the piece. […] He transformed gradually the sensual texture of the piece, interweaving carefully without any doubt its ideological context through mystical harmony and vague tonality to an almost exciting unequaled music experience.”
---New Japan Philharmonic Triphony Hall opening concert, 2018.