Biography

Jesús Ortega Martínez is the Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Bayer-Philharmoniker. Since 2023, he has also been Music Director of the Wilde Gungl Symphony Orchestra in Munich, where he recently led four acclaimed concerts at the Herkulessaal and Prinzregententheater, celebrating the orchestra’s 160th anniversary with performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony, Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, and Franck’s Symphony in D minor. He has also served as Assistant Conductor of the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra and Leo McFall in Austria.

In recent years, Ortega Martínez has conducted across Europe ensembles such as the Munich Chamber Opera, Norddeutschen Philharmonie Rostock, Elche Symphony Orchestra, Cardiff Sinfonietta, Balearic Symphony Orchestra, Seinäjoki Orchestra in Finland, Neubrandenburg Philharmonic and the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic,  as well as recording Film Music with the Munich Symphony Orchestra. He has assisted in opera productions of Turandot, La Bohème, and Werther at the State Theater of Augsburg and Munich’s Gärtnerplatz Theater.

He has been trained as a classical guitarist at the Alicante Conservatory, earning his Master’s with top honors in 2018 and several awards, including Spain’s National Award for Academic Excellence and 3rd Prize at the Alhambra International Guitar Competition. He then studied conducting and early music at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he had the opportunity to conduct Bach with the RIAS Chamber Choir as part of his studies. He has attended masterclasses with Sir Roger Norrington, Jorma Panula, and Colin Metters and is currently finishing a Master’s in Orchestral Conducting at Munich’s University of Music and Performing Arts with Marcus Bosch and Georg Fritzsch.

Ortega Martínez regularly blends Baroque and Renaissance music with contemporary works in his concerts, premiering seven new pieces in Germany last season and performing music by Gabrieli, Lully, Rameau, and Telemann. He recently revived Stephan Wolpe’s Dadaist opera Schöne Geschichten at the Musiktheater am Reaktor and was invited to conduct Vivace! with the new BERGSON PHIL ensemble, which combines contemporary music with AI-controlled acoustics at Munich’s Elektra Tonquartier.