Marit Strindlund is one of the most renowned and inspiring opera conductors of her generation in Scandinavia. She has been Music Director and Chief Conductor at Folkoperan opera house in Stockholm, a post she took up in 2013 and held until 2021, and has conducted many successful productions there including Tristan and Isolde, Bluebeard’s Castle, La traviata, Turandot, Satyagraha, Ålevangeliet, Usher, Coraline, The Threepenny Opera, The Magic Flute, Carmen Moves, The Tales of Hoffmann, The Turn of the Screw, Dichterliebe, and others. She initiated and conducted several international co-commissions during this time as well. Marit also held the position of Artistic Director and Music Director at Spira performing arts center with Jönköpings Sinfonietta from 2020 to 2023.
In the 2024–25 season, Marit made her debuts at Staatsoper Stuttgart and Wiener Festwochen, and with the orchestra of Komische Oper Berlin, amongst others. In spring 2025, Marit headed back to Staatsoper Stuttgart to conduct the world premiere of Der rote Wal to great critical acclaim. She also returns in the 2025–26 season for two productions, including the famously scandalous production of Sancta with renowned stage director and performance artist Florentina Holzinger.
In 2026, Marit appears at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, a company she has a strong connection with, having conducted there, amongst other productions, the well-received world premiere of the grand opera Brodeck by Daan Janssens in 2024. Marit will also make her house debuts at Detroit Opera for The Handmaid’s tale (also her American debut) and the Danish National Opera for Carmen. In 2027, she will conduct two productions at the Komische Oper Berlin, making her operatic debut at the house. She will also debut at Theater St. Gallen in Switzerland with a new production of Susannah by Carlisle Floyd.
Having a strong interest in contemporary music, Marit has conducted many world premieres, and, in 2019, the opera Usher by Annelies van Parys, conducted by Marit at Staatsoper Under den Linden, was nominated for best world premiere at the International Opera Awards.
Previously, Marit has conducted numerous opera productions in Belgium, the U.K., and Scandinavia, including a very successful Pelléas et Mélisande in a co-production for Bergen National Opera, Opéra de Dijon, Antwerp’s Muziektheater Transparant, and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen; Usher for Opera Ballet Vlaanderen; Sir John in Love for London’s Opera Holland Park; Songs of Wars I Have Seen for Operadagen Rotterdam; La bohéme and The Pearl Fishers at Norway’s RingsakerOperaen; La rondine at the Peacock Theatre at Sadler’s Wells, London; The Turn of the Screw and Hänsel und Gretel for Opera Garden in Aberdeen; The Brothers Lionheart at Göteborg Opera; Ålevangeliet at Norrlandsoperan; and La bohème and The Magic Flute at Wermland Opera.
As a symphonic conductor, Marit has worked with such orchestras as Philharmonisches Orchester der Hansestadt Lübeck, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Gävle Symphony Orchestra, Wermland Sinfonietta, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, and Swedish Chamber orchestra, amongst others.
She has worked with renowned chamber ensembles for contemporary music, such as the Spectra Ensemble, B’Rock Orchestra, I Solisti del Vento, KammarensembleN, and Gageego.
From 2015 to 2019, Marit was appointed by the Swedish Minister for Culture as a member of the artistic board of the national Swedish Performing Arts Agency.
Marit studied orchestral conducting at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with Jorma Panula, and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, specializing in opera, with Mark Elder and Mark Shanahan.
photo credit: Sandra Lee Pettersson