David Stahl, conductor

Music Director of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina and Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, David Stahl has established himself as a celebrated conductor of both symphonic and operatic works on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Recent guest conducting engagements include Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonnyat the Deutsche Oper Berlin, concerts of Ravel and Bruckner with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, and a debut at the Berlin Philharmonic with the Deutsche Symphonie. Highlights of his works with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra include The Right of Spring at the Spoleto Festival USA, Corigliano's Oscar-winning Red Violin, Jennifer Higdon's Blue Cathedral, and works of Beethoven, Brahms, Bernstein, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky, to name a few. In Munich, Maestro Stahl leads performances of Mozart's Idomeneo, Die Zauberflöte, Cosi fan Tutte, and Abduction from the Seraglio; Beethoven's Leonore; Puccini's Il Trittico, Madama Butterfly and La Boheme; Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, among others. 

Maestro Stahl was appointed to the Gärtnerplatz in 1996, where he has made a great impression on the city, bringing to the Gärtnerplatz a new standard of excellence and excitement in a variety of styles and repertoire and was named Munich's Conductor of the Year in 1997. He has been credited with leading an "amazing metamorphosis of astounding proportions" (Opera News), conducting a vast repertoire of over 30 operas including works by Mozart, Strauss, Rossini, Puccini, and Wagner. He led the first ever Munich performances of Beethoven's Leonore and he is also a regular guest conductor at the Bavarian State Opera where he has conducted annually since 2001. 

In Charleston David Stahl has transformed the CSO into a leading cultural institution in the region and has received a national award for imaginative programming from the American Symphony Orchestra League. The orchestra reaches hundreds of thousands of listeners regulary either live, in radio broadcasts, telecasts or recordings. Maestro Stahl's initiatives also have included Young Peoples' Concerts, outreach programs and in-school performances that bring help create new generations of music lovers. Guest artists that have performed the CSO and David Stahl have included Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham, Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, Yefim Bronfam, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Paula Robison, whose many collaborations with David Stahl include a recently recorded CD entitledOne Hundred Roses. 

He has conducted more than 100 orchestras and opera companies over the past quarter century on four continents among which include the Staatskapelle Dresden, Munich Philharmonic, NDR Orchestra of Hamburg, SDR Orchestra of Stuttgart, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and Seoul Philharmonic among others. In North America he had conducted the Lyric Opera of Chicago premiere of The Great Gatsby, the New York City Opera, and The Washington National Opera among others. He has led the symphony orchestras in Pittsburgh, Dallas, Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Toronto among others. 

A native of New York City, David Stahl made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 23 with the New York Youth Symphony and was immediately invited by Seiji Ozawa to be a conducting fellow at Tanglewood where he met his mentor and colleague Leonard Bernstein. The next year Bernstein invited Mr. Stahl to be Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic and later asked him to take over the music directorship of West Side Story on Broadway and for its European tour. After serving as Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony under Thomas Schippers, Mr. Stahl assisted Mr. Bernstein on his recording of West Side Story.

(October 2009. Please discard previously dated materials and contact publicity@colbertartists.com before making any alterations or cuts.)