Michael Stern
Conductor Michael Stern is a prominent specialist in contemporary music and American music. Since 2005, he has been the music director of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra.
Stern was born in New York on December 17, 1959. His father was the superstar violinist Isaac Stern, and he took up the violin at age three. As an undergraduate at Harvard University, Michael majored in history, but he went on for conducting studies at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, studying with Max Rudolf and graduating in 1986. Rudolf became a major mentor, and Stern was eventually invited to co-edit the third edition of Rudolf's conducting textbook. Stern also studied during summers at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute and the Pierre Monteux Memorial School in Maine and participated in Leonard Bernstein's conducting workshops with the New York Philharmonic. The latter post entailed conducting the Philharmonic in two concerts. He landed a post as the conducting assistant to Christoph von Dohnányi at the Cleveland Orchestra just before his graduation from Curtis, remaining in Cleveland until 1991 when he moved to France to become the permanent guest conductor of the Orchestre National de Lyon. From 1996 to 2000, he was the chief conductor of the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra in Germany, becoming the group's first American conductor and touring with it across Europe and in China. Returning to the U.S., he founded the IRIS Orchestra in suburban Memphis, Tennessee, and has built it into an important specialist ensemble in contemporary music. He also conducted a large variety of major American and European orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Vienna Radio Symphony, which he led on a China tour. In 2005, Stern was named the music director of the Kansas City Symphony, a position he continued to hold as of 2020.
Stern's recording career began in 2001 when he and the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony backed pianist Stefan Litwin in a recording of concertos by Henry Cowell. He has recorded, mostly with the Kansas City Symphony, for the Reference Recordings, Naxos, and Avie labels, releasing an album of music by Jonathan Leshnoff with the Kansas City Symphony on Reference Recordings in 2020.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Saint-Saëns: Symphony No. 3 in C Minor "Organ Symphony", Introduction et rondo capriccioso in A Minor & La muse et le poète
Noah Geller, Jan Kraybill, Kansas City Symphony, Mark Gibbs, Michael Stern
Classical - Released by Reference Recordings on 9 Jun 2015
24-Bit 176.4 kHz - Stereo -
Rubinstein: Piano Concerto No. 4 – Scharwenka: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto 38)
Marc-André Hamelin, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Michael Stern
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Oct 2005
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Holst: The Planets, Op. 32, H. 125 & The Perfect Fool Suite, Op. 39, H. 150
Kansas City Symphony, Kansas City Symphony Chorus, Michael Stern, Charles Bruffy
Classical - Released by Reference Recordings on 11 Oct 2019
24-Bit 176.4 kHz - Stereo -
Barber, Sibelius & Scriabin: One Movement Symphonies
Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern
Classical - Released by Reference Recordings on 28 May 2021
24-Bit 176.4 kHz - Stereo -
Jonathan Leshnoff: Symphony No. 3 & Piano Concerto (Live)
Joyce Yang, Stephen Powell, Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern
Classical - Released by Reference Recordings on 20 Nov 2020
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Adam Schoenberg: American Symphony, Finding Rothko & Picture Studies
Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern
Classical - Released by Reference Recordings on 20 Jan 2017
24-Bit 176.4 kHz - Stereo -
Violin Concerto / Rituals
Pamela Frank, Nexus, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken, IRIS Orchestra, Michael Stern
Classical - Released by Naxos on 1 Sep 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Forgotten Chants and Refrains
Charles Wetherbee, Roberto Diaz, IRIS Orchestra, Michael Stern
Classical - Released by Naxos on 16 Nov 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rubinstein: Piano Concerto No. 4 – Scharwenka: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto 38)
Marc-André Hamelin, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Michael Stern
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 1 Oct 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Miraculous Metamorphoses
Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern
Classical - Released by Reference Recordings on 4 Mar 2014
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 2 & Concert Fantasia
Classical - Released by Naxos on 9 Sep 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ein Stern der deinen Namen trägt
Schlager - Released by Tyrolis on 4 Mar 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Miraculous Metamorphoses
Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern
Classical - Released by Reference Recordings on 4 Mar 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Oboe Concertos (Live)
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken (SR), Fabian Menzel, Michael Stern
Classical - Released by col legno on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Romantic Horn Concerti
Classical - Released by Albany Records on 1 Aug 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
ROREM: Double Concerto / After Reading Shakespeare
Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, IRIS Orchestra, Michael Stern
Classical - Released by Naxos on 12 Dec 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
HARTKE: Clarinet Concerto / Rose of the Winds / Pacific Rim
Richard Stoltzman, IRIS Orchestra, Michael Stern
Concertos - Released by Naxos on 1 Sep 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
We All Have Wings
Children - Released by Michael Stern on 1 Jan 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Charles Ives: Symphony No. 3
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken (SR), Michael Stern
Symphonic Music - Released by col legno on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
American Piano Concertos
Stefan Litwin, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrücken (SR), Michael Stern
Classical - Released by col legno on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
CHIN, Gordon Shi-Wen: Double Concerto / Formosa Seasons
Cho-Liang Lin, Felix Fan, Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern
Classical - Released by Naxos on 27 Feb 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo