Chief Conductor of the North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Stefan Asbury is a regular guest with many of the leading orchestras worldwide. Recent and current highlights include performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, and Tokyo Symphony. This season Asbury conducts the world premiere of Michael Jarell’s Siegfried Nocturne at the Wagner Geneva Festival.
Previous seasons have included guest engagements with the London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, RAI Turin, Seattle Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, West Australian Symphony, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. He enjoys frequent collaborations with the Basel Sinfonietta, West German Radio, hr-Sinfonieorchester, North German Radio, and ORF Radio Symphony in Vienna. Asbury is also a regular guest conductor at festivals such as Automne en Normandie, Wien Modern, Wiener Festwochen, Munich Biennale, Salzburger Festspiele, and Venice Biennale. Since 1995 Stefan Asbury has served on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center and has held the Sana H. Sabbagh master teacher chair on the Conducting Faculty since 2005. From 1999 to 2005 he was Associate Director of New Music Activities. In addition to his regular summer teaching he has given conducting masterclasses at institutions such as the Zurich University of the Arts, Venice Conservatoire, Geneva Conservatoire, Tokyo Wonder Site, and his masterclasses are featured in the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Inside the TMC.
Recent opera productions included conducting John Adams’s A Flowering Tree for the Perth International Arts Festival, Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz for the Wiener Festwochen, Britten’s Owen Wingrave with Tapiola Sinfonietta, the world premiere of Van Vlijmen’s Thyeste with Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie and the Nationale Reisopera, Johannes Maria Staud’s Berenice at Munich Biennale, and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Karlsruhe. He has cooperated with the Mark Morris Dance Group in their production and tour of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Performances took place at Lincoln Center and at the Barbican, amongst other venues. Last season saw him collaborate with them again on Four Saints in Three Acts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Stefan Asbury has particularly strong relationships with many living composers including Oliver Knussen, Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, Unsuk Chin, Mark Anthony Turnage, and Harrison Birtwistle. He also cooperates regularly with Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, musikFabrik, and the London Sinfonietta. He was Music Director of the Remix Ensemble Casa da Música Porto in 2001–5, working with them to commission new works and programming an innovative mix of jazz, film, and music theatre. Notable amongst his recordings is an album of works by Unsuk Chin with Ensemble intercontemporain on Deutsche Grammophon. His CD of music by Jonathan Harvey was awarded a Choc du Monde de la Musique, and his interpretation of the complete cycle of Les espaces acoustiques by Gérard Grisey with the WDR Symphony Orchestra received the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.