Michael Stern (conductor)

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Michael Stern (born 1959) is a noted American symphony conductor. Currently, he serves as the music director and lead conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, a symphony orchestra in Kansas City, Missouri. He is also the founding music director of the IRIS Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee.

[edit] Early life and education

Stern was the son of American violinist Isaac Stern. He obtained his undergraduate degree in American history from Harvard University in 1981. Subsequently, he studied under conductor Max Rudolf at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, graduating in 1986. Stern also studied for two summers at the Pierre Monteux Memorial School in Hancock, Maine.

[edit] Career

In September 1986, only months after his graduation from the Curtis Institute, Stern debuted at the New York Philharmonic as one of three young conductors who Leonard Bernstein invited to participate in a conducting workshop which culminated in two concerts at Avery Fisher Hall [1]. Because of this honor, Stern was given a position as assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, where he stayed until 1991.

That year, Stern became the permanent guest conductor of the Orchestre National de Lyon in Lyon, France. During his four years with the Orchestre National, he also appeared with orchestras in Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, and Toulouse, as well as others throughout Europe.

In 1996, he left the Orchestre National to become chief conductor of the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra, a prominent recording and broadcast orchestra in Germany, making him the first American to hold the position of chief conductor in that orchestra's history. His work there is also notable for the orchestra's many recordings of American classical music during his tenure, including respective discs of works by Henry Cowell and Charles Ives. He also led the orchestra on tours of Spain, Portugal, China, and Switzerland. He stepped down as chief conductor in 2000.

After leaving the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stern founded the IRIS Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee, which specializes in playing American contemporary music. Beyond his work with IRIS, he frequently appeared throughout North America as a guest conductor at many symphony orchestras, including a series of concerts at the New York Philharmonic in the summer of 2001, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, Ottawa's National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony, and Washington, D.C.'s National Symphony Orchestra. He also began regular appearances at the Aspen Music Festival. In September of 2001, Stern led the Vienna Radio Symphony on a tour of China.

During this time, Stern also continued guest conducting orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Bergen Symphony, Bonn's Beethovenhalle Orchestra, Berlin's Deutsche Symphoniker, the Budapest Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, Rome's Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Munich's Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lausanne's Chamber Orchestra, Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra, the London Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony of Taiwan, the Singapore Symphony, and the NHK Symphony.

On September 30, 2005, Stern accepted an appointment as music director and lead conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, where he remains today, to great acclaim. Additionally, he also continues his guest conducting travels and his work with the IRIS Orchestra.

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