Germany's Rheinische Philharmonie Appoints New Chief Conductor

Polish conductor Marzena Diakun will step into the role

The Rheinische Philharmonie in Koblenz, Germany, recently announced that Polish conductor Marzena Diakun has been appointed its new Chief Conductor. She will succeed Benjamin Schwartz, who will leave the post at the end of the 2024–25 season.

A prizewinner at the Prague Spring Competition (2007) and Fitelberg Conducting Competition (2012), Diakun studied with Mieczysław Gawronski at the Karol Lipinski Academy of Music in Wrocław and completed postgraduate studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

In the current season, she will return to Komische Oper Berlin and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, as well as make debut appearances with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Until the summer of 2024, she was Artistic Director and Principal Chief Conductor of the Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid, with whom she recorded a disc of Brahms on the IBS label to critical acclaim.

A champion of contemporary music, Diakun works frequently with Ensemble Intercontemporain and the Asko-Schönberg chamber orchestra in Amsterdam.

"Marzena Diakun is one of the most exciting conductors of her generation," said Katharina Binz, culture minister. "As artistic director and chief conductor of the Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid, she has brought their musical interpretations to international attention. In the more than 370-year history of the orchestra in Koblenz, for a woman to take on the task of chief conductor for the first time makes me particularly happy."

"My first concert with the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie was on the birthday of Clara Schumann," Diakun said. "We, of course, also played Robert Schumann. Then, we met again to perform their friend Brahms, in the final selection for this position. A principal conductor position is about making music with friends, in a family, about synergy, about growing together from where we leave off at the end of each week, and about pushing the horizon of our expectations of ourselves as musicians and as people."

"I am really very happy and very grateful for the trust that this wonderful orchestra and its management have placed in me. I’m really looking forward to this new era in Koblenz."