Marko Letonja has been General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Bremer Philharmoniker since the start of the 2018/2019 season. He has also been Chief Conductor of the Orchèstre Philharmonique de Strasbourg since 2012, where he has gained international acclaim with tours and guest performances in Germany and South Korea, among others, and won the Grand Prix for the best opera production from the Syndicat Professionel de la Critique in 2019.

Marko Letonja is also Artistic Director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, where he was previously Principal Conductor from 2011 to 2018. During his tenure, he succeeded in elevating the Tasmanian Orchestra to new heights and adding a new shine to the orchestra. In 2017, he won the Helpman Award for the best concert by a symphony orchestra.

As a guest conductor, Letonja has worked with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Filamonica della Scala in Milan and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Seoul Philharmonic, the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Stockholm Opera Orchestra, the Stuttgart State Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. He regularly performs at opera houses in Vienna, Geneva, Rome, Dresden, Berlin, Munich and Lisbon. He is also a welcome guest in Australia and New Zealand and was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra Victoria Melbourne in 2008.

Letonja started his musical education as pianist and conductor at the Music Academy of Ljubljana and finished it in 1989 at the Academy for Music and Theatre in Vienna. Just two years later, he became music director of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Ljubljana, which he conducted until he was named chief conductor and music director of the Sinfonieorchester and Theater Basel. This was also the time when his international career as a conductor began.