Principal Guest Conductor
As principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Stéphane Denève spends multiple weeks each year with the ensemble, conducting subscription, Family, and summer concerts. His 2015-16 subscription season appearances include his first tour with the Orchestra, of Florida, and a two-week focus on the music of John Williams, a composer he feels passionately about, and with whom he has a personal relationship. Mr. Denève has become very well known to audiences at Verizon Hall, 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, film, and cirque performers.
Mr. Denève is also chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, and chief conductor of the Brussels Philharmonic and director of its Centre for Future Orchestra Repertoire.
Recent engagements in Europe and Asia include appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Munich Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony, the Vienna Symphony, the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestre National de France, the London Symphony, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and the Swedish Radio Symphony. In North America Denève made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 with the Boston Symphony, with which he is a frequent guest both in Boston and at Tanglewood. He appears regularly with the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in February 2015.
Mr. Denève enjoys close relationships with many of the world’s leading artists, including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Leif Ove Andsnes, Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Nikolaj Znaider, Gil Shaham, Piotr Anderszewski, Emanuel Ax, Lars Vogt, Nikolaï Lugansky, Paul Lewis, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Vadim Repin, and Natalie Dessay.
In the field of opera Mr. Denève has conducted productions at the Royal Opera House, the Glyndebourne Festival, La Scala, the Saito Kinen Festival, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Netherlands Opera, La Monnaie in Brussels, 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 double winner of the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, was shortlisted in 2012 for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award, and won the prize for symphonic music at the 2013 International Classical Music Awards. 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 works regularly with young people in the programs of the Tanglewood Music Center and the New World Symphony.