RTE has announced the appointment of the German conductor, Gerhard Markson (52), as principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra.
Mr Markson first worked with the orchestra in 1993, in recording sessions with the cellist Maria Kliegel for the Naxos label.
He made his first concert appearance with the orchestra in 1996 and became its principal guest conductor two years later, in September 1998. His new three-year contract, effective from September 2001, will see him doing 16 weeks' work a year with the orchestra.
Although he has held posts as music director of opera houses in Europe, his Irish appointment is his first to a top symphony orchestra position. "I feel myself as a link in the chain of an orchestra with a long tradition, coming after a lot of colleagues who have done great work through difficult times," Mr Markson said.
The NSO's current principal conductor, Alexander Anissimov (52), will take up the newly-created position of conductor emeritus, involving six concerts a year, when his contract expires.
As principal conductor, Mr Markson will explore what the NSO's general manager, Mr Martyn Westerman, calls "the great central European canon".
Both conductors have recording profiles with the orchestra, most recently for Markson in the tone poems of Richard Strauss, and for Anissimov in the symphonies of Rachmaninov.
