Jun Märkl, conductor

Arabella Steinbacher, violin

National Symphony Orchestra

Jun Märkl, conductor

Jun Märkl is a highly respected interpreter of the core German repertory, and has become known for his refined and idiomatic explorations of the French Impressionists. He currently serves as Music Director of the Taiwan Philharmonic (the National Symphony Orchestra), he has been appointed Music Director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and is the newly appointed Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orkest Den Hague, Netherlands. He serves as Principal Guest Conductor of the Oregon Symphony.

Märkl's expertise in the world of opera and long historical relationships with the state operas of Vienna, Berlin, Munich, the Semperoper Dresden, the Metropolitan Opera of New York, San Francisco Opera and New National Theatre in Tokyo have been complemented over the past many decades by his orchestral music directorships of the Orchestre National de Lyon, the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Basque National Orchestra, and the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra.

Märkl regularly guest conducts the leading orchestras of North America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe and has conducted many of the world's most prestigious orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, NHK Tokyo, and many others. Mr. Märkl also has an extensive discography of more than 60 recordings. In recognition of his achievements in France, he was honored in 2012 with the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

He studied in Munich with Sergiu Celibidache, at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa.

Mr. Märkl is highly dedicated to work with young musicians: for many years he worked as Principal Conductor at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo and the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. He teaches as a Guest Professor at the Kunitachi College of Music Tokyo and he recently founded the National Youth Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan.

Arabella Steinbacher, violin

Celebrated worldwide as one of today’s foremost soloists, Arabella Steinbacher is acclaimed for her technical mastery, radiant tone, and expressive depth. Her artistry brings to life a remarkably wide repertoire, from the masterworks of the Classical and Romantic eras to key twentieth century compositions by Barber, Berg, Britten, Korngold, Milhaud, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Sibelius.

Arabella Steinbacher opens the 2025/26 season with her return to the BBC Proms in London, performing Milhaud’s “Le boeuf sur le toit” with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko. Further highlights include appearances with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Taiwan Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Munich Symphony Orchestra. She welcomes the new year with a performance of Bruch’s Violin Concerto at the Dortmund Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert under the baton of Jordan de Souza.

Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto forms a cornerstone of the season. She performs it with the Frankfurter Opernund Museumsorchester at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, continuing her close artistic partnership with Marek Janowski. She also presents the concerto with the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen under Giedrė Šlekytė, as well as on tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner. Other engagements include Arabella Steinbacher’s return to the Beethoven Festival in Warsaw and a tour with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Otto Tausk to Croatia and Slovenia.

Equally devoted to chamber music, she continues her recital partnership with pianist Peter von Wienhardt. This season, the duo performs at Bruchsaler Schlosskonzerte and in Alicante.

The past year was marked by a widely acclaimed tour with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder and a return to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with Edward Gardner. A major milestone was the release of her latest recording “Beethoven & Lentz” with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and Gustavo Gimeno on the Pentatone label. She also introduced Georges Lentz’s “…to beam in distant heavens…”, a work written for her, to German audiences with the WDR Symphony Orchestra and Ryan Bancroft, before giving its Japanese premiere with the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra under Chief Conductor Nodoka Okisawa.

Her extensive discography reflects both versatility and artistic curiosity. It includes works by Arvo Pärt and Johann Sebastian Bach with the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, a highly praised Mozart cycle with the Festival Strings Lucerne, as well as “The Four Seasons” by Astor Piazzolla and Antonio Vivaldi with the Munich Chamber Orchestra. Twentieth century repertoire has a prominent place, with acclaimed recordings of Britten, Hindemith, Szymanowski, Strauss, and Prokofiev.

Arabella Steinbacher has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, and Göteborgs Symfoniker. She has also performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra as well as the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and KBS Symphony Orchestra. She has toured extensively with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, and Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken.

She has collaborated with many of the most distinguished conductors, including Marin Alsop, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, Jakub Hrůša, Pietari Inkinen, Vladimir Jurowski, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Kirill Petrenko, John Storgårds, and Kazuki Yamada.

Born into a family of musicians, she has played the violin since the age of three and began her studies with Ana Chumachenco at the University of Music and Theatre Munich when she was eight. She cites the late Israeli violinist Ivry Gitlis as a source of musical inspiration and guidance.

Arabella Steinbacher currently performs on the Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, 1718, known as „ex Benno Walter“, and the Guarneri del Gesù „Sainton“, Cremona, 1744, both generously provided by a private Swiss Foundation.