BIOGRAPHY

Chief Conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra
Artistic Advisor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra

Andris Poga is the Chief Conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. He was the Music Director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 2013 till 2021 and continues to col-laborate with the LNSO as its Artistic Advisor.

Highlights of recent years have included concerts with the leading orchestras of Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Scandinavia. After the first successful collaborations he has been invit-ed back to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester Hamburg, WDR Symphony Cologne, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and many others. He has also conducted the Wiener Symphoniker, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony.

The season of 2023/24 includes the subscription concert series with both the SSO and LNSO, tour of Spain with the SSO, returns to the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, WDR Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, RAI Torino, Hamburg Symphoniker and others. Productions of “Boris Godunov” both in Toulouse and Paris, debut with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and other projects.

In 2010, Andris Poga was the First Prize winner of the Evgeny Svetlanov International Conduct-ing Competition, which thrust him into the international scene. He was an assistant to Paavo Järvi at the Orchestre de Paris from 2011 to 2014, and from 2012 to 2014 he served as an assis-tant conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Andris has graduated the conducting department of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Mu-sic. He also studied philosophy at the University of Latvia and conducting at the Vienna Univer-sity of Music and Performing Arts.

PRESS QUOTES

“Andris Poga displayed a natural, overwhelming presence, imposing himself immediately in front of the orchestra, with an outstanding technique and a fantastic arm. (…) He bore with tire-less energy the wide ark and complexity of this extraordinarily intricate work.”
Christian Merlin – Le Figaro, about Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony

« Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony rang out. Outstandingly conducted by Andris Poga, it became a fiery quest in which terror and exaltation underpinned the relentless march of destiny »
Jean-Felix Marquette Utmisol