Kristiina Poska

Sabine Heinrich and Kristiina Poska at the Eurovision Young Musicians final rehearsal, 2014

Kristiina Poska (born 12 July 1978 in Türi)^[1] is an Estonian conductor. She currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Life and Music

Kristiina Poska was born in Türi, Estonia. Her musical career began when she was eight years old, when she began playing the piano. She graduated from Türi Music School in piano studies in 1994,^[2] and then studied choral conducting at the Georg Ots Tallinn Music College from 1994 to 1998. She continued her choral conducting studies in 2002 at Eesti Muusikaakadeemia (the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre) and then moved to Berlin, where she studied at the Universität der Künste (Berlin University of the Arts) with Professors Kai-Uwe Jirka and Jörg-Peter Weigle. From 2004 to 2009, she studied orchestral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" with Professor Christian Ehwald. In spring of 2008, she received a scholarship from the Conductors Forum at the German Music Council, where she attended classes with Peter Gülke, Reinhard Goebel, and Eri Klas.

In 1998, she founded the Estonian choir "Nimeta" ("No Name"). From 2006-2011, she conducted the Cappella Academica symphony orchestra of the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 2008-09, she conducted La Bohème at the Neuköllner Oper Berlin, Koblenz Theatre, Brandenburg Theatre. In 2010-11, she conducted La Traviata and La Périchole at the Komische Oper in Berlin, and after her successful performances, she was invited to join the opera as Kapellmeister in August 2012.^[3]

In addition to her regular engagements, she has also conducted the Brandenburger Symphoniker, Orchestra of Colours (Athens), Bergische Symphonike, Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra,^[4] Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Magdeburger Philharmonie, Robert-Schumann Philharmonie Chemnitz, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Vienna Volksoper, Symphonieorchester Bern, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Camerata Salzburg, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and Munich Philharmonic.^[3] In 2014, she was invited to lead the Eurovision Young Musicians symphony orchestra.^[5]

Awards

• Orchestra's Preference Award at the Dimitris Mitropoulos International Competition for Conducting in Athens, October 2006
• First prize, 5th Bergische Symphoniker Female Conductors' Competition in May 2007.
• Top 3, Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London (2010).
• German Operetta Prize for Young Conductors (jointly awarded by Leipzig Opera and the Conductor’s Forum of the Deutscher Musikrat)^[6]
• Audience prize, Leipziger Volkszeitung^[6]
• Third prize and audience prize, Nikolai Malko Conducting Competition, Copenhagen, May 2012
• German Conducting Prize (€35,000 prize money) offered by the German Music Council in cooperation with the Konzerthaus Berlin, April 2013

References