Markus Stenz is a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik Köln

Hochschule für Musik Köln

The Cologne University of Music is a music college in Cologne, and Germany's largest academy of music.-History:The academy was founded by Ferdinand Hiller in 1850 as Conservatorium der Musik in Coeln...

 with Volker Wangenhein and at Tanglewood

Tanglewood

Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...

 with Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...

 and Seiji Ozawa

Seiji Ozawa

is a Japanese conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of large-scale late Romantic works. He is most known for his work as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera.-Early years:...

.

Stenz has served as Artistic Director of the Montepulciano Festival (1989–1995), and Principal Conductor of the London Sinfonietta

London Sinfonietta

The London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...

 (1994–1998). In Australia, from 1998 to 2004, he was Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Melbourne, Australia. It has 100 permanent musicians. Melbourne has the longest continuous history of orchestral music of any Australian city and the MSO is the oldest professional orchestra in Australia...

 (MSO), which he took on their first European tour in 2000. Stenz is known for his championing of contemporary composers, which included the appointment of Brett Dean

Brett Dean

Brett Dean is a contemporary Australian composer, violist and conductor.-Career:Dean studied at the Queensland Conservatorium where he received a Medal of Excellence. From 1985 to 1999, Dean was a violist in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2000, he decided to pursue a career as a freelance...

 as the MSO's composer-in-residence in 2001.

Since the 2003-2004 season, Stenz has held the position of Principal Conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra

Gürzenich Orchestra

The Gürzenich-Orchester Köln is a symphony orchestra based in Cologne, Germany. On some recordings, the orchestra goes under the name "Gürzenich-Orchester Kölner Philharmoniker"...

 (Gürzenich-Kapellmeister). During his tenure, beginning in October 2005, concerts of the Gürzenich Orchestra are recorded live on their own label "GO live!" and made available within 5 minutes of the end of the concert the same night for purchase by audience members. Stenz conducted the Gürzenich Orchestra's first concert appearance at The Proms

The Proms

The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...

 in August 2008.

In February 2008, Stenz was named principal guest conductor of the Hallé Orchestra

The Hallé

The Hallé is a symphony orchestra based in Manchester, England. It is the UK's oldest extant symphony orchestra , supports a choir, youth choir and a youth orchestra, and releases its recordings on its own record label, though it has occasionally released recordings on Angel Records and EMI...

, the second principal guest conductor in the orchestra's history, and took the post in 2009. In August 2010, the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest announced the appointment of Stenz as its eighth chief conductor, effective with the 2012-2013 season, with an initial contract of 3 years.

Stenz is noted as a conductor of the operas of Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...

. His conducting debut at the La Fenice

La Fenice

Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...

 theatre in Venice was with a production of Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers

Elegy for Young Lovers

Elegy for Young Lovers is an opera in three acts by Hans Werner Henze to an English libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman.-Background:...

. Stenz has also led the premieres of other Henze operas, including Das verratene Meer

Das verratene Meer

Das verratene Meer is an opera in two parts and 14 scenes, with music by Hans Werner Henze to a German libretto by Hans-Ulrich Treichel, after Yukio Mishima's novel The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea...

(Deutsche Oper, Berlin), Venus und Adonis

Venus und Adonis

Venus und Adonis is a one-act opera by Hans Werner Henze with a German libretto by Hans-Ulrich Treichel, after the poem by William Shakespeare. The work uses both singers and dancers....

(Bavarian State Opera

Bavarian State Opera

The Bavarian State Opera is an opera company based in Munich, Germany.Its orchestra is the Bavarian State Orchestra.- History:The opera company which was founded under Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy has been in existence since 1653...

, Munich) and L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe

L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe

L'Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe is an opera by Hans Werner Henze with a German libretto by the composer, inspired by Arab and Persian legends...

(2003 Salzburg Festival).

Discography

In addition to his recordings with the Gürzenich Orchestra, Stenz made his first recording with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is a symphony orchestra of the Netherlands, based at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In 1988, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands conferred the "Royal" title upon the orchestra...

 in premieres of works by Moritz Eggert

Moritz Eggert

Moritz Eggert is a German composer and pianist.- Life :Moritz Eggert began his studies in piano and composition in 1975 at Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium in Frankfurt , at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München...

, Colin Matthews

Colin Matthews

Colin Matthews OBE is an English composer of classical music.-Early life and education:Matthews was born in London in 1946; his older brother is the composer David Matthews. He read classics at the University of Nottingham, and then studied composition there with Arnold Whittall, and with Nicholas...

, Theo Verbey

Theo Verbey

-Biography:Theo Verbey first achieved recognition for his orchestral arrangement of Alban Berg's Piano Sonata, Op. 1, a piece he orchestrated in 1984 while still a student. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague where he graduated in 1986. His principle composition teachers were Peter...

 and Detlev Glanert

Detlev Glanert

Detlev Glanert is a German opera composer, who has also composed numerous works for chamber and full orchestra, including three symphonies.-Biography:Detlev Glanert was born in Hamburg in 1960...

. Further recordings include Helmut Lachenmann

Helmut Lachenmann

Helmut Lachenmann is a German composer associated with musique concrète instrumentale.-Life and works:...

's Ausklang and Strauss's An Alpine Symphony with the Ensemble Modern Orchestra, and Henze's Symphony No. 8

Symphony No. 8 (Henze)

The Eighth Symphony by the German composer Hans Werner Henze was composed in 1992-93.Using Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as inspiration, it has a lighter theme than the major work it immediately follows, the Requiem of 1992...

 and other pieces with the Gürzenich Orchestra. Markus Stenz and the Gürzenich Orchestra are recording a Mahler cycle on SACD. The label OehmsClassics are planning a complete recording of Gustav Mahler's symphonies plus the song cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Des Knaben Wunderhorn is a collection of German folk poems edited by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, and published in Heidelberg, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, between 1805 and 1808...

with Christiane Oelze

Christiane Oelze

Christiane Oelze is a German soprano. From 2003 to 2008 she taught singing at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf.- External links :* *...

 (soprano) and Michael Volle (baritone), to be published in hybrid SACD format, with releases scheduled from August 2009 through 2012.

External links

• Homepage Markus Stenz