Greetings Readers! In anticipation of the upcoming release of the Kansas City Symphony’s album Britten’s Orchestra, we would like to introduce you to their conductor Michael Stern. The following is his bio as posted on their website.

Conductor Michael Stern is in his fourth season as music director of the Kansas City Symphony, hailed for its remarkable artistic growth and development since his tenure began. Stern and the Symphony concluded their first year together by recording for the Naxos label. Their latest CD, The Tempest, with music by Sullivan and Sibelius inspired by Shakespeare’s play, was released to critical acclaim in July 2008 on the Grammy Award®-winning Reference Recordings label.

This year also marks Stern’s first season as principal guest conductor of Orchestre National de Lille, France. As well, Stern is founding artistic director and principal conductor of the IRIS Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee. Other positions include a tenure as the chief conductor of Germany’s Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra (the first American chief conductor in the orchestra’s history), and as permanent guest conductor of the Orchestre National de Lyon in France, a position which he held for four years.

Stern has led orchestras throughout Europe and Asia, including the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Beethovenhalle Orchestra in Bonn, Budapest Radio Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Moscow Philharmonic, National Symphony of Taiwan, Tokyo’s NHK Symphony and the Vienna Radio Symphony’s tour of China.

In North America, Stern has conducted the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., where he will return in winter 2010. He also appears regularly at the Aspen Music Festival and has served on the faculty of the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen.

Stern received his music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where his major teacher was the noted conductor and scholar Max Rudolf. Stern co-edited the third edition of Rudolf’s famous textbook The Grammar of Conducting and also edited a new volume of Rudolf’s collected writings and correspondence.

Stern is a 1981 graduate of Harvard University, where he earned a degree in American history.