New Production
Stefan Asbury
Tour Conductor
Stefan Asbury is in great demand with major orchestras, ensembles and festivals worldwide. Since season 2007/08, he assumes the position of Artist in Association with Tapiola Sinfonietta with whom he conducts four projects per season. He has served on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center since 1995 and was Associate Director of New Music Activities from 1999 – 2005: he currently holds the Sana H. Sabbagh master teacher chair on the Conducting Faculty. Stefan held the post of first Music Director of the Remix Ensemble Casa da Musica Porto from 2001-2005, working with them to commission new works and programming an innovative mix of jazz, film and music theatre.
Stefan enjoys collaborations with orchestras such as WDR Cologne, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Hamburg, Seoul Philharmonic, RAI Turin, SWR Freiburg/Baden-Baden, and RSO Wien and is a regular guest conductor at festivals such as Festival d’Automne, Munich Biennale, Wien Modern and Wiener Festwochen, Salzburg Festival and Venice Biennale. Most recently, he made his debuts with the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bayerischer Rundfunk and Dresden Philharmonie. He returns to Dresden Philharmonie this season to conduct Messiaen’s Canyons.
In the opera world, Stefan conducts John Adams’ A Flowering Tree for the 2009 Perth International Arts Festival and recent opera productions have included Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz for the 2008 Wiener Festwochen, a concert version of Britten’s Owen Wingrave with Tapiola Sinfonietta, the world premiere of Van Vlijmen's Thyeste with La Monnaie, Brussels and Dutch Touring Opera and Staud's Berenice at Munich Biennale.
Stefan Asbury has particularly strong relationships with many composers including Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, Rebecca Saunders, Unsuk Chin and Mark Anthony Turnage, and collaborates regularly with Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, Basel Sinfonietta, Musikfabrik and London Sinfonietta. This season, Stefan continues his collaboration with the Mark Morris Dance Group in a production of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Performances take place at Lincoln Center, New York with the Orchestra of St Luke’s, at the Barbican, London with London Symphony Orchestra, at the Harris Theater, Chicago with Chicago Sinfonietta and others venues in the US.
Stefan Asbury has released a recording of works by Unsuk Chin with Ensemble Intercontemporain on Deutsche Grammophon. His CD of music by Jonathan Harvey with the Ensemble Intercontemporain was awarded a ‘Monde de la Musique CHOC’ award, his Grisey complete 'EspaceAccoustique' cycle with WDR Koln won the German music critics award. His discography also includes music by Isang Yun with Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, works by Elliott Carter with Ensemble Sospeso, portrait discs of Philip Cashian with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and and Rebecca Saunders with musikFabrik.
