Stefan Asbury credits to Takashi Fujimoto

©Photo: Takashi Fujimoto

Stefan Asbury

Conductor

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“The judicious and commanding baton of Stefan Asbury… [at the Leipzig Gewandhaus].”
(Leipziger Volkszeitung, February 2014)

A regular guest with leading orchestras worldwide, Stefan Asbury’s 2023/24 season has included concerts with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Athens State Orchestra and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig as well as return engagements to Ensemble Modern, Szczecin Filharmonia and Pacific Philharmonia Tokyo, and continues as he returns to NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestrer.

Recent seasons have seen Asbury working with orchestras throughout the world, including National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras, Seattle and Montreal Symphony Orchestras, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Norrköping Symfoniorkester, Auckland Philharmonia and China National Symphony Orchestra.

Renowned for his critically acclaimed interpretations of contemporary music, Asbury maintains not only strong relationships with orchestras but also with many living composers including Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, Unsuk Chin and Mark-Anthony Turnage. He conducted the world and US premieres of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Piano Concerto with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Following Sir Harrison’s passing, Asbury conducted a performance, in memoriam, of Earth Dances with HR Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in January 2023. As a recording artist, Asbury’s album with works by Jonathan Harvey with Ensemble Intercontemporain was awarded a Monde de la Musique CHOC award, and his complete cycle of Gerard Grisey’s Les Espaces Acoustiques with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln won a Deutschen Schallplattenkritik award.

In 2019, Asbury conducted the MDR-Sinfonieorchestra in the Beethovenfest in Bonn. Later that year, he also conducted Orquesta Sinfonica de Bilbao as a part of the local Musika Músika Festival.

Asbury has also served as the Chief Conductor of Noord Nederland Orkest, Chief Guest Conductor for the Tapiola Sinfonietta (Finland) and was the founder and Music Director of the Remix Ensemble (Portugal).

Opera and musical theatre forms an important part of his musical life and he has travelled widely, with highlights including John Adams’ A Flowering Tree for the Perth International Arts Festival, a performance which won the ‘Best Symphony Orchestra Concert’ Helpmann Award; Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at the Spoleto Festival USA; Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz for the Wiener Festwochen; Britten’s Owen Wingrave with Tapiola Sinfonietta, and Bartók Bluebeard’s Castle in Poland. Asbury conducted a production of A Quiet Place as part of the centenary celebrations of Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood. For dance projects, he has collaborated with Copenhagen Phil and the Danish Dance Theatre on a new production of Stravinsky’s The Firebird, the Mark Morris Dance Group in productions of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, and Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts with performances at the Lincoln Center in New York, London’s Barbican, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, amongst other venues.

Since 1995, Asbury has served on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center and has been Head of Conducting at the Tanglewood Music Center for many years. In addition to his regular summer teaching, he has given masterclasses at the Hochschule der Künste in Zürich, Ensemble Modern International Academy, and Venice and Geneva Conservatoires.

HarrisonParrott represents Stefan Asbury for worldwide general management.

Stefan Asbury - Ginastera: Popl Vuh (excerpt) © NEOS and WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln

Schreker: Kammersinfonie ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Stefan Asbury © Frankfurt Radio Symphony

Rota: Konzert für Streicher ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Stefan Asbury © Frankfurt Radio Symphony

Messiaen: Couleurs de la Cité céleste ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Pierre-Laurent Aimard ∙ Stefan Asbury © Frankfurt Radio Symphony

“[Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie] The Symphonie’s rhythms, structures, and harmonic relations are all incredibly complex and varied, but conductor Stefan Asbury and the APO never flagged during this spectacular concert… The fifth movement was a highlight and the orchestra flung itself into this dancing maelstrom with power and abandon… Stefan Asbury’s conducting led us through this thicket of themes and motifs with logic and coherence. The musicians captured all the extreme contrasts in the work from the pure and delicate to the fiery and brutal.”

(Peter Hoar, Radio New Zealand, March 2019)

“Such a piece (Grisey’s Les Espaces acoustiques) imperatively needs a conductor – Asbury doesn’t only show the diversity of the music but also sees the bigger picture. The Brit knows how to shape a breathing musical organism.”

(Muenchener Merkur, March 2018)

“Asbury conveys the captivatingly illustrative power of Shostakovich’s instrumentation with sheer cinematic imagination. The dreamy second movement shows the brutal conflicts with utmost severity.”

(Leipziger Volkszeitung, November 2017)

“Under Stefan Asbury’s baton, the young players (America’s finest) of the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra find all the sophistication of Gershwin’s score.”

(Telegraph, May 2016)

“Asbury’s sovereignty guaranteed a vivid interpretation of Messiaen [at Staatsoper Hannover] which will stay in the audience’s memory for a long time.”

(Ludolf Baucke, Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, May 2015)

“The judicious and commanding baton of Stefan Asbury… [at the Leipzig Gewandhaus].”

(Leipziger Volkszeitung, February 2014)

“The big surprise was that the new chief’s authority, he was able to show this convincingly in standard repertoire. The prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde was full of romantic mystery. With elegant tension proved the conductor that in silence the most beautiful music can hide. Asbury’s handling of parts from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet music was nothing less than a sensation. He seemingly effortlessly elicited transparency and bright colors out of the orchestra, and his honest approach won him in perfect drops of theater out of the score. We have seldom heard this orchestra play so well. After the concert, the musicians applauded for the new chief-conductor and everyone was there to shine… Groningen has something to discover…”

(De Telegraaf, December 2011)

“Stefan Asbury conducted with considerable attention to detail, skilfully guiding the performers through the music’s rhythmic complexities.”

(The Australian, March 2009)

“Outstanding: Stefan Asbury at the helm of the 11-strong ensemble from Klangforum Wien.”

(Die Welt, May 2008)