©Photo: Karolina Heller

©Photo: Kaupo Kikkas

©Photo: Karolina Heller.

©Photo: Kaupo Kikkas

©Photo: Karolina Heller

Stephanie Childress

Conductor

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“Her focus and poise resulted in a performance of lithe vitality, detailed and assured.”
Glydnebourne, The Guardian, October 2022

Strong ideas, lucid communication and intensely focused energy are among the qualities that define Stephanie Childress among today’s most compelling young musicians. Her musicianship and command of a broad scope of repertoire have already led her to establish herself on both sides of the Atlantic.

Having been inspired to start conducting due to her love of opera, the Franco-British conductor begins the 2023/24 season making her Hamburg Staatsoper debut in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and returning to Glyndebourne’s autumn season for Don Giovanni. Together they mark the latest milestone in the development of a fine Mozartian, hailed by the Guardian for the ‘lithe vitality’ of her interpretation of Le nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne and on tour last year. In the 2023/24 season she will also make her conducting debut with Detroit Opera in Missy Mazzoli‘s Breaking the Waves.

On the orchestral podium, Childress continues to be reinvited internationally and returns to the Barcelona and North Carolina Symphonies. In North America she will have debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony and National Arts Centre Ottawa. In Europe Childress will also make her first appearances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic and her Japanese debut with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.

Past 2022/23 season highlights included debuts with l’Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and New World Symphony Orchestra as well as returns to the North Carolina Symphony and l’Orchestre National de Montpellier. That season also marked the conclusion of her time as Assistant Conductor of the St Louis Symphony Orchestra under Stéphane Denève and Music Director of the St Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, a post she held from September 2020 and during which she enjoyed multiple subscription concerts with the orchestra.

Childress has very strong ties to the French cultural scene following her second-prize win at the 2020 inaugural conducting competition, La Maestra. Since then, she has conducted some of the top French orchestras including l’Orchestre de Paris, the Paris Mozart Orchestra and l’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. In September 2023, following her involvement as one of the first conducting fellows of l’Académie de l’Opéra de Paris, she makes her debut at the Palais Garnier with l’Orchestre Pasdeloup for l’Opéra’s opening gala concert. In previous seasons she has also made several exciting appearances with UK orchestras, including debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Mozart Players.

A passionate advocate for amplifying the role of music within today’s world, Childress previously undertook an artistic residence at the Villa Albertine, a network for arts and ideas spanning France and the United States. She is also a member of the Franco-British Young Leaders’ Program, a scheme created by the Franco-British Council to further cooperation across both sides of the Channel. Stephanie is an active supporter of the Tri-borough Music Hub, an award-winning organisation for music education. She has taken part in several programmes with the association, including leading the junior string ensemble at an‘Artists for Inclusivity’ event and speaking at the Youth Music Conference 2020 held at the Royal College of Music.

HarrisonParrott represents Stephanie Childress for worldwide general management.

Gallery

Stephanie Childress: Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 4 © New World Symphony

Stephanie Childress: Jean Sibelius - "En Saga" © St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

“It’s in the pit where this Don Giovanni is given exceptional life, with Stephanie Childress directing the Glyndebourne Sinfonia and revealing herself to be a Mozartian to her fingertips. She illuminates felicitous detail with well-judged pacing and a fine ear for balance.”

Opera Today, November 2023

“All are fired up to white heat in a well-played performance of irresistible energy from Stephanie Childress and the Glyndebourne Sinfonia.”

Financial Times, November 2023

“Her focus and poise resulted in a performance of lithe vitality, detailed and assured.”

The Guardian, October 2022

“Childress, conducting from memory, kept her tempos perky and her directions vivid, powerful and energetic. Longer-than-usual pauses between movements allowed the mood of one to make way for the next.”

Fred Blumenthal / St Louis Post-Dispatch / April 2022

(Respighi Ancient Airs and Dances Suite No.3) “With moods ranging from romantic yearning to tragic nobility, it calls for players with a wide expressive range and a conductor who is sensitive to both the work’s technical demands and its emotional depth. Ms. Childress and the SLSO strings were all of that in abundance”

(KDHX, Chuck Lavazzi, April 2021)

“Childress has an elastic quality about her, cutting a strong yet pliable figure on the podium… She seemed at home in front of the SLSO – in command, into the music, and having some genuine fun with the musicians and audience alike.”

(St Louis Post, STL Life, Eric Meyer, April 2021)

“Her podium style was elegant and precise, neither flamboyant nor overly reserved”

(KDHX, Chuck Lavazzi, April 2021)

“The most recent concert presented a mostly Finnish programme, originally intended for Susanna Malkki, but conducted in the event, and with full engagement, by Stephanie Childress. The novelties here were headed by Kaija Saariaho’s Lumiere et Pesanteur, a brief glimpse into a hypersensitive sound-world, where lights flicker in the finest of mists, the subtlety of the music not even compromised by substantial parts for trumpet and other brass.”

(Richard Fairman, Financial Times, November 2020)

“Childress’ elegant self-possession on the podium was reflected in interpretations that bore the stamp of a symphonic mind and consistently favoured musical honesty over sonic effect.”

(4*, Mark Valencia, Bachtrack, Nov 2020)

‘She played the lazy intro with perfect pitch and then went on with soft, sweet and serene panache. There was a good balance between orchestra and soloist as we were taken on a journey flying high as a lark in the summer sky. There was playful accompaniment from the woodwind section and a simply sumptuous solo performance from Childress. She displayed delightful bow work with the gentlest of nuances, both transfixing and transcendent.‘

(The Reviews Hub, January 2020)

“Clarity, and in particular unity, also flows from the orchestra under the baton of Stephanie Childress, a seriously exciting (and unnervingly young) talent who conjures a lithe, supple and above all united sound from her instrumentalists, full of atmosphere, drama and poise. Childress’ command of her orchestra brings verve, bite and gravity to the score’s darker moments, while exulting merrily in its racier passages, and the sheer musicality of this production is another of its strengths.”

(Operissima, February 2018)

“Stephanie Childress, was both the conductor and the concert’s stand out performer. From the moment she entered the Chapel she commanded the orchestra with such poise and energy that it was truly impossible to believe she was only eighteen years of age. In a video played before the concert, St John’s’ Director of Music commented on some of the notable young conductors of the past, such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Sir Simon Rattle. Perhaps such heights too lie in wait for Childress, who successfully tackled what she described in her Twitter feed as “the gargantuan mass of music” that is Beethoven’s 9^th symphony.”

(Varsity, November 2017)