Festival International de Colmar -

Since September 2006, Ion Marin has held the position of principal guest conductor of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, and is seen today as one of the most accomplished artists of his generation.  Acclaimed at the greatest opera houses in the world (the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, the Berlin Deutsche Oper, the Zurich Opera, the Bastille Opera and La Scala of Milan where he conducted Manon Lescaut in 2006, he is in demand to conduct some of the most prestigious orchestras such as the Staatskapelle of Dresden, the London Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhaus of Leipzig (Ion Marin was the principal guest conductor of this orchestra for many years), the Orchestre National de France (in 2006) and the Berlin Philharmonic (May 2007).

Born in Romania, Ion Marin left home permanently in 1986, training as a pianist and conductor in Salzburg, then at the Accademia Chiggiana in Siena. As permanent conductor of the Vienna Opera from 1987 to 1991, he worked with Claudio Abbado and has conducted a vast operatic and symphonic repertory since then - from Mozart to Berg, but his favorite field is post-romanticism and the music of the 20^th century.

His recordings have repeatedly received distinctions from international music critics in France, Germany and the United States: to name a few, Donizetti's Lucia of Lammermoor, his albums with Caecilia Bartoli and Angela Gheorghiu (gala concert at Covent Garden), both Bruckner's and Mahler's Fourth Symphony, etc. In 2004, Ion Marin won the Alfred Schnittke prize for his contribution to the development of contemporary music.

Over the course of the 2007-2008 season, Ion Marin has been invited to conduct La Cenerentola at the Zurich Opera, Eugene Onegin and Werther at the Munich Opera - not to mention a series of concerts at the head of Japan's New Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Philharmonic of Russia and the National Orchestra of Belgium.