Stéphane Denève, conductor

Stéphane Denève is currently in his sixth season as principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He spends multiple weeks each year with the ensemble, conducting subscription, tour, and summer 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. 

He is also the Music Director of the Brussels Philharmonic and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and Director of the Centre for Future Orchestral Repertoire (CffOR). He has previously served as Chief Conductor of Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Recognized internationally for the exceptional quality of his performances and programming, he regularly appears at major concert venues with the world’s greatest orchestras and soloists. He has a special affinity for the music of his native France and is a passionate advocate for music of the 21st century.

Recent engagements include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Vienna Symphony, DSO Berlin, NHK Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, and Rotterdam Philharmonic. In North America he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has appeared several times both in Boston and at Tanglewood, and he regularly conducts The Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Toronto Symphony. He is also a popular guest at many of the US summer music festivals, including Bravo! Vail, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Hollywood Bowl, Blossom Music Festival, Festival Napa Valley, Grand Teton Music Festival, and Music Academy of the West.

He enjoys close relationships with many of the world’s leading solo 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, Stéphane Denève led a new production of Pelléas et Mélisande with the Netherlands Opera at the 2019 Holland Festival. Elsewhere, he has led productions at the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne Festival, La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Saito Kinen Festival, Gran Teatro de Liceu, La Monnaie, Deutsche Oper Am Rhein, and at the Opéra National de Paris.

As a recording artist, he 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 of the Year, has been shortlisted for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year Award, and has won the prize for symphonic music at the International Classical Music Awards. His most recent releases include a live recording of Honegger’s Jeanne d’arc au bûcher with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and two discs of the works of Guillaume Connesson with the Brussels Philharmonic (the first of which was awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’année, Caecilia Award, and Classica Magazine’s CHOC of the Year).

A graduate and prize-winner of the Paris Conservatoire, Stéphane Denève worked closely in his early career with Sir Georg Solti, Georges Prêtre and Seiji Ozawa. A gifted communicator and educator, he is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians and listeners, and has worked regularly with young people in programmes such as those of the Tanglewood Music Center, New World Symphony, the Colburn School, the European Union Youth Orchestra, and the Music Academy of the West.



Photo credit: Bart Dewaele

Bruce Adolphe, Director of Family Concerts, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Bruce Adolphe is a composer, educator, performer, and author whose music is performed worldwide by renowned artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Fabio Luisi, Joshua Bell, Sylvia McNair, Carlo Grante, the Washington National Opera, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Jeffrey Kahane and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Zürich Philharmonia, the IRIS Orchestra, the Beaux Arts Trio, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Brentano String Quartet, the Miami Quartet, the Cassatt Quartet, the Currende Ensemble of Belgium, and over 60 symphony orchestras.

Some career highlights include: Itzhak Perlman’s world premiere performances of Adolphe’s solo violin music at The Kennedy Center and Avery Fisher Hall; Yo-Yo Ma playing the world premiere of Self Comes to Mind, a work based on a text written for the project by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, at the American Museum of Natural History; violinist Daniel Hope performing the violin concerto I Will Not Remain Silent with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra conducted by Jeffrey Kahane in 2017; Joshua Bell performing world premiere of Einstein’s Light with pianist Marija Stroke at UNESCO in Paris as the finale of the United Nations Year of Light, 2015; the Washington National Opera performances of Let Freedom Sing: the story of Marian Anderson (libretto by Carolivia Herron); an evening of Adolphe works at The Kennedy Center; two full-length operas on Jewish subjects at The 92^nd Street Y (Mikhoels the Wise and The False Messiah); nine world premieres at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Highlights of the 2015-16 season include the world premiere of Chopin Dreams at Alice Tully Hall, played by Italian pianist Carlo Grante, who also gave the European premiere at the Brahms-saal of the Musikverein, Vienna. This season also sees the release of the film Einstein’s Light by Nickolas Barris, featuring Adolphe’s score, which reflects Einstein’s devotion to playing violin and his love of the music of Mozart and Bach. The soundtrack features violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Marija Stroke, who also performed the work live at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton. Sony Masterworks has released a recording of Einstein’s Light with Joshua Bell and Marija Stroke, available as a download or streaming from all the major music sites. This July (2016)  Fabio Luisi conducted the world premiere of Adolphe’s Piano Concerto with soloist Carlo Grante and the Zürich Philharmonia. In June,  by Eliot Fisk played the world premiere of Suite for Pete, dedicated to the memory and humanitarian work of Pete Seeger, at the Off the Hook Arts Festival in Colorado.

Highlights of the 2014-15 season included the world premiere of Musics of Memoryat the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC in LA on October 27 and 28, 2014.  The work — scored for piano, marimba, harp, and guitar — is structured to reflect the way memory works in the brain. After the performance, there was a discussion about memory, brain, and music with Antonio Damasio, Assal Habibi (director of music research at BCI), and Bruce Adolphe. Also that season, the IRIS Orchestra conducted by Michael Stern gave the world premiere of I Will Not Remain Silent, a violin concerto based on the life of Joachim Prinz, with Sharon Roffman, soloist.  On January 19th, 2015, Joshua Bell and Marija Stroke performed highlights of the Einstein’s Light soundtrack live with scenes from the film projected on a screen for the finale of the opening ceremony of The International Year of Light at UNESCO in Paris.

Highlights of the 2013-14 season included performances by the LA Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Cassatt Quartet at the Crystal Bridges Museum and the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton, and the premiere of The End of Tonight (poems by Nathalie Handal) for three female voices, three cellos, and piano at the Greene Space in New York. The 2012-13 season included a premiere commissioned for the opening ceremony of MoMath, the only museum of mathematics in America, and a premiere in Lucerne performed by the Human Rights Orchestra, as well as performances from Santa Fe to Lisbon.

Over the past 25 years, Mr. Adolphe has served as composer-in-residence at many festivals and institutions throughout the United States for which he has also created and led educational concerts and workshops for all ages and levels of musical accomplishment. A key figure at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1992, Mr. Adolphe is the founder and director of the Society’s Meet the Music family concert series as well as the Society’s resident lecturer. He has appeared as a commentator on Live From Lincoln Center television and as a regular lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The author of three books on music, he has taught at Yale, Juilliard, and New York University. Since 2002, he performs his Piano Puzzlers weekly on public radio’s Performance Today, hosted by Fred Child. With Julian Fifer, Mr. Adolphe co-founded The Learning Maestros, a company dedicated to creating new works and related curricula that integrate music with other disciplines, including science, literature, history, and issues of social conscience. His book The Mind’s Ear: Exercises for Improving the Musical Imagination was published in a second edition in October 2013 by Oxford University Press. Mr. Adolphe’s music is recorded on many labels, including Bridge, Delos, Telarc, PollyRhythm, Albany, CRI, New World, and Naxos (American Masters series).

Mr. Adolphe was recently appointed composer-in-residence at the Brain and Creativity Institute in Los Angeles, where he works with neuroscientists Antonio and Hanna Damasio and Assal Habibi. He lives in New York City with his wife, the pianist Marija Stroke, their daughter Katja, and Polly Rhythm, the opera-singing parrot.