Marko Letonja has been General Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra since the beginning of the 2018-19 season. Since 2012, he has also led the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, attracting international attention through tours and guest performances – including in Germany and South Korea – and won the Grand Prix for the best opera production from the Syndicat Professionnel de la Critique in 2019.
Letonja is also the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s Artistic Director, having been its Principal Conductor from 2011 to 2018. During this period, he raised their artistic profile significantly, resulting in his being awarded the Helpman Award for the best concert by a symphony orchestra in 2017.

Letonja has conducted many renowned orchestras, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala in Milan, and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has also worked with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Royal Stockholm Opera Orchestra, the Stuttgart State Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. He is a regular guest at opera houses in Vienna, Geneva, Rome, Dresden, Berlin, Munich and Lisbon. He frequently performs in Australia and New Zealand; in 2008 he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra Victoria Melbourne.

Letonja studied the piano and conducting at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and continued his training at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, graduating in 1989. Just two years later, he became Music Director of the Slovenian Philharmonic in Ljubljana, a post he held until his appointment as Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Basel Symphony Orchestra and Theatre. This marked the beginning of his international conducting career.