Markus L. Frank

Markus L. Frank began his musical career as a horn player. After highly successful participation in several international competitions (he was a prizewinner in Markneukirchen, Geneva, and at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich), he held a position as horn player with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. Concurrently, the Swabian-born musician studied conducting at the Detmold University of Music and the Hamburg University of Music and Drama.

In 1998, he was engaged as Kapellmeister at the Theater Kiel, where he acquired a comprehensive repertoire including many of his own productions. In 2003, he moved to the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau as First Kapellmeister and deputy General Music Director. From 2008 to 2016, Markus L. Frank was General Music Director of the historically-significant Loh Orchestra Sondershausen and the Theater Nordhausen. Here his particular focus was on unknown and rarely performed works of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries together with the promotion of contemporary young composers.

In addition to this position, he made numerous guest appearances at the opera houses in Nuremberg, Wiesbaden, and Hanover as well as at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he gave his debut in 2005. From 2013 to 2016, he taught conducting at the University of Music “Franz Liszt” in Weimar. He has been leading the master class for soloists together with orchestra at the Weimar Master Classes since 2012. The rediscovery of Franco Alfano’s opera Cyrano de Bergerac, conducted by Markus L. Frank at the Kiel Theater and released on CD, was greeted by critics with great enthusiasm. In 2015, he released an album featuring major orchestral works by Walter Braunfels, also produced by Deutschlandradio Kultur. At the beginning of the 2016/17 season, Markus L. Frank was appointed General Music Director of the Anhaltisches Theater and Chief Conductor of the Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau.

Picture: Simon Pauly