Stéphane Denève
Principal Guest Conductor
Stéphane Denève is currently in his sixth and final season as principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He spends multiple weeks each year with the ensemble, conducting subscription, tour, and summer concerts. His 2019–20 subscription season appearances include three weeks of concerts. Mr. Denève has become very well known to audiences at Verizon Hall, the Mann Center, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Vail, having appeared as guest conductor numerous times since making his debut in 2007. He has led more programs than any other guest conductor during that time period, in repertoire that has spanned more than 100 works, ranging from Classical through the contemporary, including presentations with dance, theater, film, and cirque performers.
Mr. Denève is also music director of the Brussels Philharmonic and the St. Louis Symphony, and director of the Centre for Future Orchestral Repertoire. He was previously chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Recent engagements in Europe and Asia include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Vienna Symphony, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the NHK Symphony, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the Czech Philharmonic, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. In North America he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 with the Boston Symphony, with which he has appeared several times, both in Boston and at Tanglewood. He regularly conducts the Cleveland Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony. He is also a popular guest at many of the U.S. summer music festivals, including Bravo! Vail, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Hollywood Bowl, the Blossom Music Festival, Festival Napa Valley, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West.
Mr. Denève enjoys close relationships with many of the world’s leading artists, including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yo-Yo Ma, Nikolaj Znaider, James Ehnes, Leif Ove Andsnes, Leonidas Kavakos, Nicholas Angelich, Lang Lang, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Gil Shaham, Emanuel Ax, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Lars Vogt, Nikolai Lugansky, Paul Lewis, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, and Augustin Hadelich.
In the field of opera Mr. Denève has led productions at the Royal Opera House, the Glyndebourne Festival, La Scala, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and the Opéra National de Paris.
As a recording artist, Mr. Denève has won critical acclaim for his recordings of the works of Poulenc, Debussy, Ravel, Roussel, Franck, and Connesson. He is a triple winner of the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, was shortlisted for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award, and won the prize for symphonic music at the International Classical Music Awards. His most recent releases include a live recording of Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra on that orchestra’s own label, and two discs of the works of Connesson with the Brussels Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon (the first of which was awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, the Caecilia Award, and Classica magazine’s CHOC of the Year).
A graduate of, and prizewinner at, the Paris Conservatory, Mr. Denève worked closely in his early career with Georg Solti, Georges Prêtre, and Seiji Ozawa. He is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians and listeners and has worked regularly with young people in the programs of the Tanglewood Music Center, the New World Symphony, the Colburn School, the European Union Youth Orchestra, and the Music Academy of the West.
For further information please visit www.stephanedeneve.com.
August 2019
Photo by Jessica Griffin
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