Martin majkut biography

 Matin Majkut (@mmaestrissimo) is a world class conductor and human being. He’s lived through a revolution, has two PhDs, can sing, play piano and inspires orchestras to deliver exciting, polished and powerful performances. He’s the Music Director of the Rogue Valley Symphony in Ashland, Oregon, and the Queens Symphony Orchestra in New York. 

Martin was born and brought up in Bratislava  Czechoslovakia now known as Slovakia where he graduated from the state conservatory there.

He served as the assistant conductor of the Slovak philharmonic while he was earning his PhD in conducting at the academy of performing arts. While studying there he also worked with the Slovak Philharmonic, the Slavic Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Slavic State Philharmonic and the Slavic Sinfonietta. He gained a wealth of experience in Europe before coming to the States. In 2003 he came on a Fulbright scholarship where worked on his doctorate of musical arts at the University of Arizona in Tucson, his second doctorate by the way. 

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Born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), Majkut graduated from the State Conservatory and served as Assistant Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic while
earning his Ph.D. in conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts. While studying, he worked with the Slovak Philharmonic, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Slovak
State Philharmonic and Slovak Sinfonietta.
Majkut came to the U.S. as a Fulbright scholar in 2003 and earned a D.M.A., his second doctorate, in 2008, at the University of Arizona. He also studied with Gianluigi Gelmetti at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy and Salvador Mas Conde at the Wiener Meisterkurse in Vienna, Austria. Majkut has been serving as Music Director of the Rogue Valley Symphony (RVS) in Ashland, Oregon since 2010. The RVS has experienced a remarkable growth under his leadership and is enjoying an unprecedented level of support and enthusiasm in the community. The 50 th  season of the orchestra, with five world premieres and a star-studded line-up of soloists, earned him an invitation to the June 2018 League of American Orchestras conference as a featured presenter in the Frontiers: Risk + Reward session. Maestro Majkut’s ability to inspire the orchestra and deliver exciting, polished and powerful performances results in enthused audiences and many sold out concerts. He has been called “amazing, supremely gifted” and “an incomparable, unique and perhaps irreplaceable asset” by the press in Oregon. Starting with the 2017/18 season, Maestro Majkut assumed the music directorship of the Queens Symphony Orchestra in New York. Performing in a variety of ethnically diverse communities, the orchestra is quickly gaining popularity in the dynamic borough of 2.35 million people.
Majkut is looking forward to his return to the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia in spring of 2019. He was invited to conduct a program celebrating the 70 the anniversary of his alma mater.

Martin Majkut is an internationally recognized conductor known for his dynamic leadership and innovative programming. He currently serves as Music Director of the Rogue Valley Symphony, Queens Symphony Orchestra, and the Oregon Coast Music Festival.

Since 2010, Majkut has been Music Director of the Rogue Valley Symphony in Ashland, Oregon, leading the orchestra’s remarkable growth. Serving three cities with distinct demographics, the RVS has more than tripled its budget under his leadership and gained national recognition for its ambitious programming.

In 2017, Majkut was appointed Music Director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra in New York. Under his direction, the orchestra has expanded its season and developed a strong following throughout the borough. Performing in diverse communities, the QSO plays in intimate venues for a few hundred listeners as well as in large-scale concerts, such as its 4th of July celebration, which draws an audience of 16,000.

In 2025, Majkut was named Music Director of the Oregon Coast Music Festival. The longest-running music festival on the coast, OCMF brings together musicians from premier orchestras nationwide for a mid-summer series of performances, alongside outdoor and educational programming.

Born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), Majkut earned his Ph.D. in conducting from the Academy of Performing Arts. He came to the U.S. as a Fulbright scholar in 2003 and earned his second doctorate in 2008 from the University of Arizona. He also pursued advanced studies at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and the Wiener Meisterkurse in Vienna, Austria.

During the pandemic, Majkut reimagined the concert experience by producing a series of films, shorts, and documentaries as alternatives to live performances for the RVS and QSO. He also created a series of “quarantine videos” titled What Goes Through the Conductor’s Head, offering

Some great music. An open sky. A comfortable spot. It all adds up to a wonderful night. 

The Queens Symphony Orchestra’s 24th Annual Summer Concert is a St. John’s University’s Great Lawn on Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 7 pm.

Entitled “A Little Night Music: Mozart Comes to Queens,” this year’s program opens with one of the Austrian composers’s most famous creations, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Next, violin virtuoso Bella Hristova plays Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major, K. 219. Then, the fun concludes with Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550. 

Admission is free. So is parking, but motorists are advised to enter the campus via Gate One at 80-00 Utopia Pkwy.

Founded in 1953, Queens Symphony is the borough’s oldest professional arts organization and the only NYC-based orchestra that’s not in Manhattan. The conductor since 2017 is Maestro Martin Majkut, a former Fulbright scholar who is also the Music Director of the Rogue Valley Symphony in Ashland, Oregon.

Born in Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), Majkut earned his Ph.D. in conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts while serving as Assistant Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic. He earned a D.M.A. from the University of Arizona in 2008. He also studied at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and at the Wiener Meisterkurse in Vienna, Austria.

In case of rain, the concert will move indoors to the Little Theatre on campus.

Images: Queens Symphony Orchestra