Belgium’s Flanders Symphony Orchestra Appoints New Chief Conductor 

Belgian conductor Martijn Dendievel will assume the role in January 2026

Martijn Dendievel will join the Flanders Symphony Orchestra (Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen/FSO) as chief conductor in 2026, succeeding Kristiina Poska, who has held the role since the 2019/20 season. 

Dendievel started as FSO’s assistant conductor in 2018, before becoming the orchestra’s associate conductor in 2022. In his new role, he will be involved in FSO’s artistic development and aims of becoming a leading international ensemble. 

Born in 1995, Dendievel studied music theory and notation, cello, and orchestral conducting at the Royal Brussels Conservatory. In 2014, he moved to Weimar as part of the ERASMUS program and after a year studying with Nicolás Pasquet, he was accepted to the conductor’s workshop at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt.

Having studied cello with an FSO member, he decided to become a conductor at the age of 10 while watching the orchestra perform Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No.1. 

“How the players responded to that timpani blow and the way the conductor channeled their energy to support the soloist was mind-blowing for me,” he recalled. “That’s when I said, ‘This is what I want to do’. It seems like a movie story, but it’s true! It all started with that one moment.”

Additionally, Dendievel was mentored by Bernard Haitink, Christian Thielemann, Edo de Waart, and Simone Young. He is also a member of the Dirigentenforum des Deutschen Musikrat, and won the first prize at the 2018 MDR Conducting Competition. In 2019, he won both the first prize and the public award of the Louis Spohr Conducting Competition. 

His other awards include the 2021 German Conductors’ Prize, and first prize of the  Conductors' Academy organized by Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Paavo Järvi; in 2023, Dendievel was appointed Hofer Symphoniker’s chief conductor — a role which had remained vacant for over 20 years.  

“Not yet in his thirties, Martijn brings a wealth of experience back to the orchestra that, from the start of his career, gave him every opportunity to develop,” said FSO’s general director Jos Roeden in a press release. “He knows the orchestra like no other and has a clear vision of what is needed for its musicians to grow.”

“We see great potential for future growth at the local and national level under Martijn Dendievel’s direction,” Roeden added. “It is a strong story for the audience in Flanders to have a young man from their own region, who’s creating genuine international excitement, back with ‘their’ Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen. He is the first Belgian to be appointed as chief conductor at a major orchestra in Belgium for twenty years, and he also happens to be the best person for the job, regardless of his nationality. It is a great prospect for the orchestra to be able to move with his growth curve and expand our international network and recognition.”

“Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen is so important to me in so many ways,” Dendievel expressed. “It is a great honor that the orchestra’s players have put their trust in me. I have experienced their tremendous energy and spirit since I was a child. We will build on the work of my predecessors and cultivate the beautiful transparent sound that makes them so unique,” he continued. “At the same time the orchestra is in a transition period, looking to anchor themselves strongly locally and grow internationally. There are so many things we can do to make people feel involved in the concert experience without losing the best traditions of the symphony orchestra.”

A video of Dendievel announcing his new role with the FSO can be viewed below.