Conductor/Music Director

After a full year of search competition, with five finalists performing as guest conductors, Martin Majkut has been named Music Director of the Rogue Valley Symphony.  He will start his work here immediately and will move to the Rogue Valley in August.

Majkut (pronounced My-koot) will open his first season the weekend of September 24-25-26 with a blockbuster program that begins with Novák’s In the Tatras, a tone poem about Slovakia’s fabled mountains. Majkut calls this piece his “visit card, handed to the community” to say, ‘This is where I come from.” Next, to say “This is where I found home,” he has invited pianist Alexander Tutunov to perform “a quintessential American piece,” Piano Concerto in F by Gershwin. Finally he will celebrate the great traditions of classical music with the universal favorite, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

RVS Board President says, “We are thrilled to welcome Martin Majkut as the artistic leader of the Rogue Valley Symphony. During our long search, the orchestra described him as ‘an awesome musician’ and audience survey cards awarded him an A+++.  Typical comments were, ‘Martin brings forth an exquisite landscape of music where everyone, audience and musicians, are glorious,’ and ‘Music flows out of his body, through the musicians and into the auditorium.’”

Majkut’s story begins in Bratislava, the capitol of Slovakia and a city of 429,000 people with three professional world-class orchestras, located just 50 miles from Vienna, in the historic heartland of classical music. He began taking piano lessons when he was six years old. Why piano? “The main reason was that we had a piano in the home. Back in the era of socialism, the education was free and quite excellent, one of few good things in the otherwise rotten system. I got an excellent teacher and went on to winning prizes in various piano competitions. The first prize was always a Russian alarm clock that would stop working almost instantly. My parents ended up with a nice collection thanks to my playing.”

When he was 14, he went on to study conducting, as well as piano, at the State Conservatory in Bratislava. That same year came the Velvet Revolution, which brought democracy back to the country. “The events of that time belong to my most cherished memories,” he says. “For several months the life was like in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 – all people were brothers! Strangers would spontaneously chat in the streets. People went out of their way to help each other. There was practically no crime for some time. It was an ‘ideal state’ and we all thought it would remain like that forever.” But, he says, it did not last. “The inescapable byproducts of a free society cured us all of the elevated feelings. It was still a thousand times better than the totalitarian oppression of Communism, but it was no Beethoven’s Ninth any more. Nevertheless, it was the most inspiring time of my life and it shaped me in a very profound way.”

At 25, Majkut became the youngest-ever assistant conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic, a one-year non-renewable position. He still performs regularly with that orchestra. He frequently guest conducts with the Slovak Sinfonietta, the State Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Meanwhile, he says, “I felt I needed a different point of view. I wanted to go see and experience how it is done elsewhere. I grew convinced that I have to go study abroad to really complete my training as a conductor.”

Chance and the open friendliness of the two ladies who ran the Fulbright Commission’s office in Bratislava turned that desire into a scholarship at the University of Arizona. “It was an interesting dichotomy being a student in Arizona and a professional in Slovakia,” he says. In 2007 he completed work on his doctorate at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Bratislava and in 2008 he finished his doctorate at the University of Arizona.

During these years he decided to make America his home. “I should have been born here,” he says. “It fits my personality so well! I am an optimist and a can-doer. The European skepticism wears thin on me after a while. But I love the European culture and enjoy the distinctiveness of European nations.”  

He will continue to work in both worlds.  “I felt right at home when I came to Rogue Valley last fall. A big part of it was the wonderful people I met. Part of it was the healthy lifestyle I observed – people walking a lot, eating healthy food, being connected to nature and their surroundings. And part of it was that it reminded me of Slovak mountains.” He gets back to Slovakia several times a year to guest conduct, and to see family. “Family plays an enormously important role in my life. After living in the U.S. for seven years, I am still in touch with my folks practically on a daily basis. I cannot wait for them to visit me in the Rogue Valley. They are going to love it!”