Stefan Asbury

“The choice could not be more judicious, because… [Asbury] the substitute was flawless at the helm of the OSM.” – La Presse, Montreal, OSM, November 2021

A regular guest with leading orchestras worldwide, recent seasons have seen Stefan Asbury working with orchestras throughout the world, including in North America the Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Montreal, Seattle and Vancouver Symphony orchestras, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.  Internationally he has been with the Copehangen Philharmonic, Pacific Philharmonia (Tokyo), Auckland Philharmonia, China National Symphony Orchestra, Norrköpings Symfoniorkester, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. He conducted the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig as part of Beethovenfest Bonn and Orquesta Sinfonica de Bilbao during Bilbao’s Musika-Musica 2019 festival. Stefan has also served as the Chief Conductor of the Noord Nederland Orkest, Chief Guest Conductor for the Tapiola Sinfonietta (Finland), and was the founder and Music Director of the Remix Ensemble (Portugal).

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

Opera and musical theatre forms an important part of his musical life and he has travelled widely, with highlights including John Adams’ A Flowering Tree for the Perth International Arts Festival, a performance which won the ‘Best Symphony Orchestra Concert’ Helpmann Award; Porgy and Bess at the Spoleto Festival USA; Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz for the Wiener Festwochen; Britten’s Owen Wingrave with Tapiola Sinfonietta, and Bartok Bluebeard’s Castle in Poland. Mr. Asbury conducted a production of A Quiet Place as part of the centenary celebrations of Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood. For dance projects, he has collaborated with Copenhagen Phil and the Danish Dance Theatre on a new production of The Firebird, the Mark Morris Dance Group in productions of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, and Virgil Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts with performances at the Lincoln Center in New York, London’s Barbican, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, amongst other venues.

Since 1995 Stefan Asbury has served on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center and has been Head of Conducting at the Tanglewood Music Center for many years. In addition to his regular summer teaching, he has given masterclasses at the Hochschule der Künste (Zürich), Ensemble Modern International Academy, and Venice and Geneva Conservatoires.