Stefan Asbury
Guest Conductor
A regular guest with leading orchestras worldwide, Stefan Asbury’s 2021/22 season starts with his debut with Ensemble Resonanz at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and his debuts with the Seattle Symphony and the Montreal Symphony, followed by engagements with the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Norrköpings Symfoniorkester, Ensemble Modern, and Szczecin Philharmonic and a debut with the Vancouver Symphony.
Recent seasons saw Asbury appearing with the world, including the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia and China National Symphony Orchestra. He conducted the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig as part of Beethovenfest Bonn and Orquesta Sinfonica de Bilbao during Bilbao’s Musika-Musica 2019festival.
Asbury has particularly strong relationships with many living composers including Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, Unsuk Chin and Mark-Anthony Turnage. He has conducted the world premiere of Bernd Richard Deutsch’s Organ Concert at the Musikverein in Vienna and the world premiere of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Piano Concerto with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, including the US premiere with Aimard and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Following the sad passing of Oliver Knussen, a very close mentor, Stefan conducted his last completed composition with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in November 2018.
As a recording artist, Stefan Asbury’s CD of music by Jonathan Harvey was awarded a Monde de la Musique CHOC award, and his complete cycle of Gerard Grisey’s Les Espaces Accoustiques with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln won a Deutschen Schallplattenkritik award.
Since 1995 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.