Markus Stenz

Markus Stenz ( born February 28, 1965 in Bad Neuenahr ) is a German conductor and since the season 2003/2004 Cologne Music Director ( thus responsible for the opera and the Gürzenich Orchestra ) ( to 31 August 2014). He will not extend his contract. His successor will be to September 1, 2015 for five years, the Frenchman François -Xavier Roth.

Life and work

Markus Stenz is Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gurzenich - conductor and principal guest conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, based in Manchester. He is also designated Chief Conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra from 2012 /2013.

He leaves as Cologne's general music director and chief conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra in the summer of 2014.

After graduating from school at the Peter Joerres -Gymnasium in Bad Neuenahr- Ahrweiler in 1983, he was educated at the Hochschule für Musik Köln in Köln with Volker Wangenheim and with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa at Tanglewood and distinguished himself early on with their own projects, as well as great- and premieres. In 1989, Stenz, the musical director of the Cantiere Internazionale d' Arte in Montepulciano (until 1995 ) and served as the principal conductor from 1994 to 1998, the London Sinfonietta, the renowned British contemporary music ensemble. In addition to his position as artistic director and chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra from 1998 to 2004 Markus Stenz has expanded its repertoire toward classicism and romanticism.

In the Cologne Philharmonic Markus Stenz debuted in 1996 with the WDR Symphony Orchestra. In February 2000, he conducted a concert by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in September 2002, the Young German Philharmonic. At the desk of Gürzenich Orchestra he gave on 10 June 2001 his debut.

As a concert conductor Markus Stenz has collaborated among others with the following orchestras: Munich Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, The Hallé Orchestra Manchester, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of the BR, HR, WDR and NDR conducted. In the U.S., he worked with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of Boston, Dallas, Minnesota, Houston and Seattle.

Since the season 2003/2004 Markus Stenz is Gurzenich - Kapellmeister. He led the Gürzenich Orchestra at the turn of 2007/2008 on its first tour of China as well as in August 2008 at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms in London.

Markus Stenz made ​​his debut as an opera conductor with Hans Werner Henze's " Elegy for Young Lovers " at the Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice. He has conducted numerous premieres and first performances, such as Hans Werner Henze's " The Betrayed sea " in Berlin, "Venus and Adonis" at the Bavarian State Opera and ' L' upupa and the triumph of filial love " at the 2003 Salzburg Festival. Since his opera debut Markus Stenz has performed at major international opera houses and festivals such as eg at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, at the English National Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles, at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Hamburg State Opera, at the Frankfurt Opera ( with the premiere of Detlev Glanert " Caligula ") and at the Glyndebourne Festival ( 2004 Janácek's " Jenufa " ), the Edinburgh International Festival and the Salzburg Festival.

Of particular note from the previous work at the Cologne Opera, the highly acclaimed performances of Richard Wagner's " Ring des Nibelungen ", " Lohengrin ," " Tannhauser ," " Tristan and Isolde " and " Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg " as well as Leoš Janáček's " Jenufa " and " Kát'a Kabanová ". The Cologne Opera begins the season 2010/2011 with a guest appearance in China: Wagner's " Ring des Nibelungen" occurs twice cyclically at the Expo 2010 in Shanghai for the performance and in Beijing a guest Cologne Opera with a performance range of Mozart's " Don Giovanni ". Markus Stenz is characterized in Cologne in the coming season musically responsible, inter alia, for the new productions of Richard Strauss' " Elektra " and Alban Berg's " Wozzeck".

Discography

With the OehmsClassics the complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler, as well as the songs from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" with Christiane Oelze (soprano) and Michael Volle (baritone ) are currently being released. The cycle appears on hybrid SACD. The prelude of the great Mahler cycle with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne made ​​the Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor, which was recorded in autumn 2009 in the top list of the German Record Critics. Meanwhile the 4th Symphony and the Wunderhorn songs have appeared. From classic sc magazine recording the fourth in October 2010 was named " orchestral disc of the month", the magazine Pizzicato highlights the inclusion in its October issue as an exceptional reference recording with the "supersonic pizzicato " out. It provides for the continuous release of single CD and at the end of the recordings in 2012 with a slipcase complete symphonies and the Wunderhorn songs.

Since mid-October 2005, the concerts of the Gürzenich Orchestra are recorded and are available as "GO live! " - Available Now CD about five minutes after the final applause. A "Best of" - mix of the three evening concerts is a few weeks later at the iTunes Music Store as a download. Within this extensive concert documentation include following works were published: Ludwig van Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 5 and 7, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's C minor Mass, Gustav Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 and 7 and Anton Bruckner's Symphonies Nos. 5 and 8