Since 2022, Martin Lehmann has served as the 29th Kreuzkantor of the Dresdner Kreuzchor and, in this capacity, as artistic director of the oldest cultural institution in the Saxon capital. His tenure as Kreuzkantor combines tradition with innovation; his repertoire spans a wide range, from a cappella choral music and choral-symphonic works to world premieres and first performances of contemporary music. A programmatic focus of his first seasons as Kreuzkantor is dedicated to works by Kreuzkantors who were also successful as composers. By awarding regular composition commissions for introits, he is continuously expanding the Kreuzchor’s Vesper canon.
From 2001 to 2005, Martin Lehmann served as director of the Schola Cantorum Leipzig girls’ choir; he then moved on to become music director of the Wuppertaler Kurrende. In 2012, he assumed the artistic directorship of the renowned Windsbach Boys’ Choir. Under his ten-year leadership, the boys’ choir regularly performed at major festivals worldwide as well as in prominent concert halls such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and the Tonhalle in Zurich. In 2017, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria recognized his contributions by appointing him Director of Church Music.
Martin Lehmann has collaborated with renowned ensembles such as the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, and the WDR Big Band; in the field of historical performance practice, he has also worked with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and the Dresden Festival Orchestra. An extensive discography documents his diverse body of work. In 2025, Berlin Classics released Poulenc’s “Gloria” and Schubert’s Mass in A-flat major with the Dresden Kreuzchor and the Dresden Philharmonic, as well as a live recording of the world premiere of Sven Helbig’s “Requiem A” with René Pape, the Dresden Kreuzchor, and the Saxon State Orchestra Dresden on Deutsche Grammophon.
Born in 1973 in Malchin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and later raised in Dresden, Martin Lehmann began his musical training in the Dresden Kreuzchor. After studying choral conducting at the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden under Hans-Christoph Rademann—during which time he gained formative experience as Rademann’s artistic assistant with the Dresden Chamber Choir—he founded the cantamus Dresden chamber choir.