David Stern

A native New Yorker, David Stern is a born communicator. Whether conducting a major symphony orchestra, a baroque opera, teaching vocal master classes, or defending cultural activities, Stern rivets his musicians, students and audiences by sharing his strong musical convictions, his flexibility of approach and his belief that music is of essence and relevance in today's world. As music director of the Israel Opera and founder/director of the Paris-based opera studio and period-instrument ensemble, Opera Fuoco, as well as incoming opera music director for the Crested Butte Music Festival in Colorado, he not only is a performer but a musical figurehead in each of these communities.

David Stern is also frequent guest with orchestras around the globe. This season’s engagements include the Drottningholm Opera Festival, the Edmonton and Palm Beach Operas, the Vienna Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the National Orchestra of Mexico. He is a regular guest with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony, the Guangzhou Symphony as well as the China Philharmonic. He has recently been appointed music director of the Shanghai Baroque Festival, a new international festival premiering in December 2014.

Invitations as opera conductor have taken him to European houses such as La Monnaie, Opéra de Lyon, the English National Opera, Marseille, Strasbourg and St. Gallen, where he was music director from 2008-2012. He has directed productions with Concerto Köln and Basel Chamber Orchestra at prestigious venues such as the Lucerne and Gstaad Festivals and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Among his collaborators have been directors Yoshi Oida and Stephane Braunschweig at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, David Alden and Jakob Peters-Messer in St. Gallen and Tel Aviv.

Choosing bold repertoire, whether old or new is one of Stern's priorities. With Opera Fuoco, Stern released a CD of rediscovered French Romantic Cantatas with mezzo-soprano Karine Deshayes, and has recorded and toured a fully staged production of Johann Christian Bach's opera, Zanaida, which he premiered at the 2011 Bachfest in Leipzig. In 2014, Stern and Opera Fuoco bring a newly commissioned opera, Cosi Fanciulli, to the Théâtre de St Quentin and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. It features music by French composer, Nicolas Bacri, and a libretto by literary star, Eric Emmanuel Schmitt. With the Israel Opera, he has championed contemporary Israeli works to offset the mainstream repertoire of the house: The Child Dreams by composer Gil Shohat, was featured at the in the Wiesbaden Festival in 2012. At the Palm Beach Opera, after a highly successful Macbeth in 2014, Stern will return to conduct the world premiere of Enemies: a Love Story by Ben Moore in 2015.

Working with young singers and developing audience sensitivity are essentials for David Stern. His series of “musical encounters" with Opera Fuoco is now part of a residency at the Mona Bismarck American Center for Art and Culture in Paris. As artist in residence in Sweden's 2014 Drottningholm Opera Festival, he will be involved in the ESPRIT! program, leading masterclasses and outreach projects, as well as conducting the festival's production of Mozart's Mitridate.

Stern received his Bachelor of Arts from Yale and his Masters of Music from the Juilliard School. He resides in Paris with his wife, violinist Katharina Wolff, and his two daughters.

Source: http://www.davidstern.co/