Marko Letonja is considered one of the most successful conductors to have come from Slovenia. He studied at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, first piano with Aci Bertoncelj and later conducting with Anton Nanut, and went on to study with Otmar Suitner at the Vienna Academy of Music and Performing Arts, graduating in 1989. His successful debut with the Slovenian Philharmonic in 1987 was followed by well-received performances throughout Slovenia and abroad.

Between 1989 and 2003 he was artistic director of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and also began appearing with orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony, philharmonic orchestras of Munich and Bremen, the Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and with the celebrated Swedish soprano Nina Stemme and the orchestra of the Stockholm Opera.

Mr. Letonja dedicated himself to opera after becoming the chief conductor and artistic director of the symphony orchestra and Theater Basel in 2003. Developing an extremely diverse and demanding repertoire, he later appeared at the Vienna State Opera, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Semperoper in Dresden, La Scala in Milan, the Berliner Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg and the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari. Among many other works he has conducted Wagner’s Ring cycle at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon and at the Royal Opera in Stockholm.

Since 2012 he is the chief conductor of the Strasbourg Philharmonic and conductor laureate of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He also became music director of the Bremen Philharmonic in 2018.