Stéphane Denève is Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director of the New World Symphony, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. He previously served as Principal Guest Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Music Director of the Brussels Philharmonic, Chief Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (today's SWR Symphony Orchestra), and Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
A graduate and prize-winner of the Paris Conservatoire, Stéphane Denève worked closely in his early career with Sir Georg Solti, Georges Prêtre, and Seiji Ozawa. Passionate about the future of the art form and a gifted communicator, he is committed to inspiring the next generation of performers and listeners through commissioning, digital and new media initiatives, and innovative approaches to concert presentation. As an educator, he leads the orchestral performance programme at the New World Symphony (an orchestra academy), and has also worked with students at the Colburn School, Tanglewood Music Center, European Union Youth Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, the Curtis Institute, and Music Academy of the West.
Recent European appearances include the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, the BBC Proms, Orchestre National de France, and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, with whom he conducted the 2020 Nobel Prize concert.
In North America, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Boston Symphony. In 2022, he led the Kennedy Center’s 90th Birthday Gala for John Williams with the National Symphony Orchestra, and he appears regularly at major U.S. festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Grand Teton, and the Hollywood Bowl.
Elsewhere, Stéphane Denève has appeared with the NHK, Sydney, New Zealand, and São Paulo symphonies, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Saito Kinen Orchestra, with whom he conducted Deutsche Grammophon’s 125th anniversary gala.
His acclaimed discography includes award-winning recordings of Poulenc, Debussy, Ravel, Roussel, and Connesson. Recent releases feature works by Kevin Puts and John Williams with the St. Louis Symphony, and his complete Ravel recordings with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony, released by Hänssler Classic in 2022.