Mittwoch, 19. Mai 2010

Markus Stenz (Conductor)

Markus Stenz is the General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister and Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra.

Studied at the School of Music in Cologne under Volker Wangenheim and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, Markus Stenz has held the positions of Artistic Director of the Montepulciano Festival (1989 – 1995), Principal Conductor of the London Sinfonietta (1994 – 1998) – one of the most renowned ensembles for contemporary music. As Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (1998 – 2004) Markus Stenz broadened his repertoire and established his career as an international conductor.

Markus Stenz has held the position of Principal Conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra (Gürzenich-Kapellmeister) since 2003. He visited China with the orchestra in early 2008 and conducted their first ever BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in August 2008.

Markus Stenz made his debut as an opera conductor at La Fenice in Venice in a production of Hans Werner Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers. He has since conducted many world premieres and first performances including Henze’s Das Verratene Meer in Berlin, Venus und Adonis at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and L’Upupa at the 2003 Salzburg Festival. Markus Stenz has appeared at many of the world’s major opera houses and international festivals including La Scala in Milan, La Monnaie in Brussels, English National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Stuttgart Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Edinburgh International Festival and Salzburg Festival.

His notable performances in Cologne have included Wagner’s Ring, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser and Tristan und Isolde as well as Janacek’s Jenufa and Katya Kabanova. New productions in the 2009/10 season include Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Eötvös’ Love and other Demons. The Opera of Cologne will open the season 2010/11 with Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen in Shanghai as part of the cultural programme of the EXPO 2010 and with Mozart’s Don Giovanni the ensemble is invited to the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. In Cologne Markus Stenz will conduct new productions of Richard Strauss’ Elektra and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck.

In the 2009/10 season Markus Stenz made his highly successful debut at the Chicago Lyric Opera in a production of Katya Kabanova featuring Karita Mattila.

Markus Stenz conducts many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Berlin Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Vienna Symphony and the Symphony Orchestras of the Bayerische Rundfunk, the HR, the WDR and the NDR. In the United States these have included the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra and Dallas, Houston and Seattle Symphony Orchestras.

In December 2009 he returned to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducting Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Markus Stenz will conduct works by Gustav Mahler in the 2009/2010 season with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra and the Gürzenich Orchestra.

The label OehmsClassics is currently recording a complete cycle of Gustav Mahler's symphonies with Markus Stenz and the Gürzenich Orchestra plus the song cycle „Des Knaben Wunderhorn“ with Christiane Oelze (soprano) and Michael Volle (baritone). The cycle will be published as hybrid SACD. The first release of this cycle, Mahler's 5th Symphony, has been listed in the German Record Critics’ Award in November 2009. Single CDs will be released until the completion of the cycle in 2012.

Since October 2005 concerts of the Gürzenich Orchestra are recorded live on their own label “GO live!” and made available within 5 minutes of the end of the concert for purchase by members of the audience. An edited version of the 3 subscription concerts is available for download from the iTunes Music Store. Amongst the many works available are Beethoven’s Symphonies nos. 5 and 7, Mozart’s C Minor Mass, Mahler’s Symphonies nos. 5, 6 and 7 and Bruckner’s Symphonies nos. 5 and 8.


www.markusstenz.com