He’s a rising star at home and overseas, he made it into Forbes Hungary’s «30 under 30» list, he is both an accomplished conductor and a virtuosic pianist: Martin Rajna is the new maestro of the Luxembourg Philharmonic! Between him and the musicians, it was «love at first sight», he tells us. But where and when did they meet? How did the search for the orchestra’s next music director go? And who exactly is Martin, both within and beyond the world of music?
30,years old
October 2026,is when his term begins
For 4,seasons (to begin with...)
Martin Rajna is the newly appointed Music Director of the Luxembourg Philharmonic, principal conductor of the Hungarian State Opera, and co-artistic director of the Wagner Days at Müpa Budapest, a position he shares with Ádám Fischer. Between 2021 and 2025 he was chief conductor of the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra. In the 2026/27 season, Rajna will embark on his music directorship in Luxembourg conducting concerts there, as well as taking the orchestra on a European and a South American tour. He will also continue to make more European debuts. At the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, he will lead new productions of Il Trovatore and Salome and conduct La Bohème. For the Wagner Days, he will conduct The Flying Dutchman. In previous seasons, Rajna has conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Fenice, the Netherlands Philharmonic, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra. In July 2025, he conducted in the Tyrol Festival in Erl (Austria) a new double-bill of Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Francis Poulenc’s La Voix humaine, both directed by Claus Guth. He also appeared with the same production at the Teatro Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in March 2026. Rajna’s previous awards include a scholarship in 2022 to participate in the Forum Dirigieren programme of the German Music Council, and he was also selected by the Lucerne Festival Academy for a Conducting Fellowship where his mentor was Thomas Adès. Martin Rajna graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he studied with Ádám Medveczky and András Ligeti and furthered his training at the Hochschule für Music Franz Liszt Weimar under conductors Nicolás Pasquet and Ekhart Wycik. In 2021, he was selected to participate in the mentoring programme of the Péter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation, where he worked with Péter Eötvös, György Kurtág, Fabián Panisello and Magnus Lindberg.
« I am very much looking forward to working together with this team and these musicians. »
- Martin Rajna
Appointing a new Maestro: a look behind-the-scenes
Our colleagues Patrick Coljon and Matthew Studdert-Kennedy, both members of the search committee for the new Music Director, explain how they came to choose Martin Rajna.
