





Stephanie Childress
Download Assets
“Her focus and poise resulted in a performance of lithe vitality, detailed and assured.”
Glydnebourne, The Guardian, October 2022
Principal Guest Conductor: Barcelona Symphony Orchestra
Strong ideas, lucid communication and intensely focused energy are among the qualities that define Franco-British conductor Stephanie Childress. Her musicianship and fresh approach to a broad scope of repertoire have already established her firmly on both sides of the Atlantic.
Childress’ 2024/25 season concluded with debuts with the San Francisco, Houston and San Diego Symphony Orchestras, alongside a return to The Cleveland Orchestra to conduct Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony for the closing concert of the Blossom Festival. Her 2025/26 season begins with her debut at The Juilliard School conducting Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony and leading the New York premiere of Anna Clyne’s Palette. She continues her tenure as Principal Guest Conductor of Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (OBC) with programmes featuring Philip Glass’ Violin Concerto, Sibelius’ Symphony No.1 and Schumann’s Symphony No.2. The latter marks the beginning of an exploration of the symphonic works of Schumann performed throughout the season with Toronto Symphony Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt and Minnesota Orchestra. She will also make debuts with the Zürich Chamber Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and her Ausralian debut in April 2026 with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. A passionate collaborator, in June 2026 she will work with director Tom Morris on a re-imagining of Mahler’s Symphony No.1 at St. John’s Smith’s Square.
Show More
During the past few seasons, performances of Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Hamburg Staatsoper), Don Giovanni and Le Nozze de Figaro (Glyndebourne) marked the development of a fine Mozartian, hailed by The Guardian for the “lithe vitality” (The Guardian, 2022) of her interpretations. An advocate for contemporary opera, she has also conducted Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves with Detroit Opera and Simon Voseček’s Ogres at the Prague State Opera. This season marks her first production of Verdi’s La Traviata at the Finnish National Opera alongside a gala performance with l’Opéra de Paris at the Palais Garnier.
Childress enjoys strong ties to the French cultural scene following her second-prize win at the conducting competition ‘La Maestra’ in 2020. Since then, she has conducted l’Orchestre de Paris, Paris Mozart Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Orchestre National d’Ile de France, Orchestre National de Montpellier, and will debut with the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine in the 2025/26 season. A reflection of her transatlantic presence, Childress previously undertook a residency at the Villa Albertine, a network for arts and ideas spanning France and the United States and is a member of the Franco-British Young Leaders’ Program.
A relentless supporter of youth music programs, Childress enjoys a close connection to the Sun Valley Music Festival Institute, where she was previously Associate Conductor, and is a regular faculty member at the Sarasota Music Festival. During her own training, she served as Assistant Conductor of the St Louis Symphony under Stéphane Denève from 2021 to 2023 and was one of the first conductors to join l’Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris.
Contacts
Isabella Thorneycroft Artist Coordinator
worldwide general management
Isabella Thorneycroft Artist Coordinator
Isabella Thorneycroft Artist Coordinator
worldwide general management
Gallery






Season Highlights
Glasgow City Halls
Show more about Glasgow City Halls
GRAZYNA BACEWICZ: Overture
RICHARD STRAUSS: Six Songs (Brentano Lieder), Op. 68
SERGEI RACHMANINOV: Symphonic Dances
The Glasshouse International Centre for Music
Show more about The Glasshouse International Centre for Music
BEN LUNN: Sonnet - I like Bartulis
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Concerto for Piano No. 1 in C major, Op. 15
ANTONIN DVORAK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 (From the New World)
Hallé Concerts Society
Show more about Hallé Concerts Society
BENJAMIN BRITTEN: Simple Symphony
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67
Sarasota Music Festival
Show more about Sarasota Music Festival
MARY KOUYOUMDIJAN: Tagh (Diary) of an Immigrant
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH: Concerto for Piano No. 2, Op. 102
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36
Show more season highlights
Frost Amphitheater
Show more about Frost Amphitheater
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: The Sleeping Beauty (Suite), 1. Introduction, 2. Adagio
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: Concerto for Violin in D major, Op. 35
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture
Houston Symphony
Show more about Houston Symphony
Blossom Music Center
Show more about Blossom Music Center
BENJAMIN BRITTEN: Simple Symphony
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS: Concerto for Piano No. 1 in D major, Op. 17
FELIX MENDELSSOHN: Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 (Scottish)
“Whether with baton or without, her long, expressive fingers eloquently shaped phrases with precision and grace throughout the evening.”
“notable for her classical poise…Her movements were compact and focused, completely geared to getting the job done.”
“a powerful conclusion to a concert that reaffirmed Stephanie Childress’ growing reputation – one well-earned, concert after concert, from the conductor’s podium.”
“A highly focused conducting style…a masterful conductor with a distinctive beat.”
“Here was a performance full of finely blended orchestral colours, Childress helping sculpt the sound with palpable affection and encouragement.”
“The Detroit Opera Orchestra led by the brilliant Stephanie Childress, who is making her Detroit Opera conducting debut, played Mazzoli’s complex score with subtlety and finesse.”
“A sumptuous, challenging score, conducted with precision by Stephanie Childress and rendered impeccably by the Detroit Opera orchestra”
Conductor Stephanie Childress powerfully leads a particularly game Detroit Opera Orchestra through some extensively powerful, surprising and thoughtful moments in acts two and three.
“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.”
“All are fired up to white heat in a well-played performance of irresistible energy from Stephanie Childress and the Glyndebourne Sinfonia.”
“Her focus and poise resulted in a performance of lithe vitality, detailed and assured.”
“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.”
(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”
“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.”
“Her podium style was elegant and precise, neither flamboyant nor overly reserved”
“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.”
“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.”
‘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.‘
“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.”
“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 9th symphony.”