Stefan Asbury

A regular guest with leading orchestras worldwide, Stefan Asbury has worked with renowned ensembles across the globe in recent seasons. In North America, his recent engagements include the Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Montreal, Seattle, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Florida Orchestra. Internationally, he has conducted the Copenhagen Philharmonic, Pacific Philharmonia (Tokyo), Auckland Philharmonia, China National Symphony Orchestra, Norrköpings Symfoniorkester, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. Notable appearances include conducting the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig at Beethovenfest Bonn and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao at Bilbao’s Musika-Musica 2019 Festival. Stefan has also held prominent roles as Chief Conductor of the Noord Nederlands Orkest, Chief Guest Conductor of the Tapiola Sinfonietta (Finland), and founder and Music Director of the Remix Ensemble (Portugal).

Stefan Asbury maintains close collaborations with many living composers, including Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, Unsuk Chin, and Mark-Anthony Turnage. He conducted the world and U.S. premieres of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Piano Concerto with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, alongside the Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Following Birtwistle’s passing, Stefan led a memorial performance of Earth Dances with the HR Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in January 2023. As a recording artist, his album featuring works by Jonathan Harvey with Ensemble Intercontemporain received the Monde de la Musique CHOC award. Additionally, his complete cycle of Gérard Grisey’s Les Espaces Acoustiques with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln won a Deutschen Schallplattenkritik award.

Opera and musical theatre are integral to Stefan’s career. His notable projects include John Adams’ A Flowering Tree at the Perth International Arts Festival, which won the Helpmann Award for Best Symphony Orchestra Concert; Porgy and Bess at the Spoleto Festival USA; Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz for the Wiener Festwochen; Britten’s Owen Wingrave with the Tapiola Sinfonietta; and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle in Poland. He also conducted A Quiet Place during the Leonard Bernstein centenary celebrations at Tanglewood. Stefan’s work in dance includes collaborations with the Copenhagen Philharmonic and Danish Dance Theatre on a new production of The Firebird, and with the Mark Morris Dance Group on productions of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts, performed at venues such as Lincoln Center in New York, London’s Barbican, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

In December 2024, it was announced that Stefan Asbury would join the conducting faculty at the New England Conservatory. He previously served on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center for over 30 years. Additionally, he has led masterclasses at the Hochschule der Künste (Zürich), the Ensemble Modern International Academy, and the conservatories of Venice and Geneva.