Martijn Dendievel is the winner of the 2021 German Conductors’ Award (Deutscher Dirigentenpreis) and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich and Paavo Järvi Conductors Academy, as well as laureate of the LSO Donatella Flick Competition. He is a finalist at the inaugural ICCR – International Conducting Competition Rotterdam, which will take place in May 2022.

Passionate about discovering new pieces in addition to the main repertoire, Martijn is currently Associate Conductor of the Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, whilst he finishes his conducting studies in the class of Prof. Nicolás Pasquet and Prof. Ekhart Wycik at the renowned Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar. Prior to this, he served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Academic Orchestra Halle from 2016 to 2020.

He regularly appears with orchestras and theatres such as the Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, Teatro Comunale Bologna, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, amongst others, and in the current season, Martijn will make his debut with the Nürnberger Symphoniker, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, and he returns to the MDR Symphony Orchestra and the Hofer Symphoniker.

Over the last few years, Martijn has conducted the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle Orchester, WDR Orchester Cologne, Gürzenich Orchester Cologne, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne Festival, Dortmund Philharmonic and the Bremen Philharmonic, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Jena Philharmonic, and the Staatskapelle Weimar.

He has been selected as one of the “Maestros von Morgen” of the Forum Dirigieren of the German Music Council (formerly Dirigentenforum) and has received important impules from mentors such as Bernard Haitink, Ivan Fischer, Edo de Vaart, Paavo Järvi and Christian Thielemann, amongst others.

Apart from the music language, Martijn speaks fluently Dutch, French, Italian, German, English, Spanish and Swedish.

Grown up in a family of musicians, he showed a great interest for music during his childhood and took his first musical steps on the violin at the age of three. A few years later, he switched from violin to cello and started his musical studies at the Music Conservatory of Bruges. In the same year he started playing Recorder and Percussion.

Martijn’s first conducting experience took place at the age of 11 conducting a small string orchestra in Lauwe, Belgium. He then started studying with Kristof Van Grysperre, his first mentor and teacher in piano and conducting. In 2010, Martijn went on a 4-week masterclass as Apprentice Conductor in Los Angeles, conducting two performances with the Intimate Opera Orchestra.

At the age of 14, Martijn has exceptionally been admitted to the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where he completed a Bachelor Program in Music Theory and Harmony with honors as well as beginning his Conducting studies under the guidance of Patrick Davin.  In the same years, in Bruges, healso  graduated  with honors in Cello, Percussion and Chamber Music.

As part of his Conducting studies, Martijn has been selected to participate in the Euroclassical Project, conducting Strauss’ Tod und Verklärung with the Brussels Conservatory Symphony Orchestra.

In 2014, Martijn conducted the highly acclaimed premiere of “La Forêt”, a chamber opera by Baudouin de Jaer, which lead to his debut at the Palais des Beaux-Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels conducting the world premiere of “Cities – Springs of Diversities” by the same composer.

Martijn was the music director of the “Festival for Minimal Music Weimar”, which he organized on the occasion of the 80th birthday of the American composer Steve Reich.

From 2016 to 2020 he was serving as Principal Guest conductor of the Academic Orchestra Halle. He has also made guest appearances with the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Jena Philharmonic, the Thuringia Philharmonic Gotha-Eisenach, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Luzern Festival Strings and the Brussels Sinfonietta. He has also conducted the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle Orchester, WDR Orchester Cologne, Gurzenich Orchester Cologne, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Filharmonie Hradec Králové, Dortmund Philharmonic and the Bremen Philharmonic. In December 2019 he made his conducting debut at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with the Flanders Symphony Orchestra and the pianist Severin von Eckardstein.

Bernard Haitink invited Martijn three times to take part in his master class at the Lucerne Festival. He also received important impulses from Christian Thielemann, Michael Sanderling, Edo de Waart, Simone Young and Iván Fischer amongst others.