About

Martin Rajna is one of the most outstanding young conductors emerging from Hungary, working with soloists of international renown. At the young age of 27, and as the 2023 winner of the György Cziffra Festival Talent Prize, he takes the podium at the Hungarian State Opera this year as their newly-appointed Principal Conductor. Simultaneously, as the chief conductor of the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra, he also regularly appears as a guest conductor with leading symphony orchestras of Hungary, as well as with several other orchestras across Europe. He is scheduled for several international debuts during the 2023/24 season.

Previous awards include a scholarship in 2022 to participate in the Forum Dirgieren programme of the German Music Council. He was also selected for the Conducting Fellowship of the Lucerne Festival Academy. In 2018, he was selected for Hungary’s Junior Prima Award.

For the 2023/24 season, he will conduct the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and Hof Symphony Orchestra, and will also appear with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Slovenia in Ljubljana. For the Hungarian State Opera’s 2023/24 season, he will conduct Verdi’s Attila, Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri and Il barbiere di Siviglia, Strauss’ Die Fledermaus and Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

Martin Rajna graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he studied with Ádám Medveczky and András Ligeti. Currently, he is continuing his training at the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar under conductors Nicolás Pasquet and Ekhart Wycik. In 2021 he was also selected for the mentoring programme of the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation, where he worked with such masters as Péter Eötvös, György Kurtág, Fabián Panisello and Magnus Lindberg. In 2023 he acted as assistant conductor to Ádám Fischer during the “Budapest Wagner Days”.

Photo by Richard Kovacs