Kristiina Poska


Kristiina Poska is an Estonian conductor. She currently lives and works in Berlin.

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, 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 and then moved to Berlin, where she studied at the Universität der Künste 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". 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.
In addition to her regular engagements, she has also conducted the Brandenburger Symphoniker, Orchestra of Colours, Bergische Symphonike, Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra, 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. In 2014, she was invited to lead the Eurovision Young Musicians symphony orchestra.
In October 2018, Theater Basel announced the appointment of Kristiina Poska as its next General Music Director, effective with the 2019-2020 season.
In March 2019, the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, based in Ghent, Belgium, announced the appointment of Poska as its next chief conductor, starting in the 2019-2020 season.

Awards