Martin Gester’s artistic personality has been fashioned through his constant acute curiosity and exposure to a great number of neglected masterpieces. That personality infuses his profoundly original approach to mainstream repertoire, whether at the head of his ensemble, as a guest conductor, or a soloist in chamber music.
After studying literature and music at the Conservatory and University of Strasbourg, he founded Le Parlement de Musique in 1990, an inventive, exploratory, flexible, and demanding ensemble at the crossroads of baroque and classical styles, concert and stage, as concerned with discovering new talent as with collaborating with established artists.
Martin Gester has conducted the Parlement de Musique on some forty recordings illustrating a repertoire spanning two centuries of music, from T.L. de Victoria to J. Haydn, and has performed in prestigious venues on four continents. He has also conducted other ensembles and orchestras. Since 1998, he has enjoyed a special collaboration with Arte dei Suonatori, a Polish baroque orchestra. Their recent recording of Handel’s 12 Concerti grossi op. 6 for BIS (Sweden) has been enthusiastically received internationally as one of the “reference versions” in an already prestigious discography. This was followed by G.F. Telemann’s Suites pittoresques and Concerts Polonois (BIS, January 2013) and Venetian Christmas (Christmas in Venice around the psaltery). More recently, Martin Gester recorded Handel’s Concerti grossi Op. 3 (BIS, 2019), this time with the Australian baroque orchestra Van Diemen’s Band, a new partner. He is also invited to conduct productions by the Voces Suaves ensemble— in H. Schütz and M.A. Charpentier.
At the same time, Martin Gester continues his activities as a performer: organist and harpsichordist in recitals or as a concerto soloist, or chamber music partner; on the fortepiano, notably in duo with Aline Zylberajch (they have recorded Mozart’s works for four hands), but also solo: his recording of J.S. Bach’s 6 Partitas for harpsichord (Clavier-Übung 1), released by Ligia, illustrates his exploration of the relationship between the most elaborate music and dance. This was followed by Portraits et Caractères (Jacques Duphly, Mondonville) and Sinfonies au Salon by Johann Schobert, also released by Ligia. With the 18 Leipzig Chorales and Variations Canoniques, freed from his role as director of the Parlement de Musique and armed with his profound experience of Baroque languages, he returned to his remarkable beginnings as a solo organist (Paraty 2025), planning further Clavier-übung II and III. More recently, he has taken a special interest in interpreting the late works of C.P.E. and W.F. Bach and J. Haydn on the clavichord.
A keen interest in working with selected singers has led him to explore the world of lyric singing—cantatas, motets, and lieder—from Monteverdi to Schubert.
Naturally inclined toward teaching and experimentation, Martin Gester founded his own opera workshop, Génération Baroque, a place for discovering, training, and promoting young European professional artists selected through auditions. Its annual productions, often devoted to rare works and entrusted to directors with original approaches, have gained recognition beyond borders in France, Germany, Poland, Belgium, and Italy.
Martin Gester has reached harpsichord and the interpretation of the baroque and classical repertoire to singers and instrumentalists (organ, pianoforte, chamber music) and still leads productions of the baroque orchestra at the Académie Supérieure de Musique and the Conservatoire de Strasbourg. He has been regularly invited to coach singers at the Opéra Studio of the Opéra National du Rhin in the baroque and classical repertoire, and regularly gives masterclasses on several continents.
Martin Gester was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of Art and Letters) by the French Minister of Culture for his direction of Le Parlement de Musique, and awarded the Order of Merit by the Polish Minister of Culture for his work with Arte dei Suonatori.
