Guest ArtistsEckehard Stier, conductor

Eckehard Stier was born and raised in Dresden, and he has gone on to make a mark on the global music scene. His career began as a member of the famous Dresden Kreuzchor, where he was the first-prize winner of the Rudolf Mauersberger scholarship. His first appointment as a music director was with a repertoire theatre in Germany, and he was the Chief Conductor of the Auckland Philhamonia Orchestra from 2009-15.

He has since appeared as guest conductor with the London Symphony, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Staatskapelle Halle, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Sinfonieorchester, the Robert Schumann Philharmonie Chemnitz and the WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne. In 2016 he makes his concert debut with the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest among others.

Mr. Stier has developed fruitful relationships with soloists such as Alina Ibragimova, Cloe Hanslip, Nicolas Altstaedt, Ragna Schirmer, Natalia Lomeiko, Maxim Rysanow, Gilles Apap, Cédric Tiberghien, Nikolai Demidenko, Andreas Boyde and Per Arne Glorvigen.

Eckehard Stier has built strong audience and critical support for his distinguished performances as well as his championing of contemporary and lesser-known masterworks. With the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra he has conducted numerous New Zealand premieres, including John Corigliano’s Mannheim Rocket and Campane di Ravello, John Adams’s The Wound Dresser, Paul Schoenfield’s Four Parables for Piano and Orchestra and Duke Ellington’s tone poem Harlem. Mr. Stier’s interpretations of the symphonic works of Mahler and Shostakovich are internationally acclaimed.

With a broad repertoire of more than 80 operas Eckehard Stier is well known as an opera conductor. His interpretations of the works of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner in particular have received acclaim from both audiences and critics.

Beside his activity as a conductor, Mr. Stier is a popular pianist, accompanying and interpreting silent movies and in jazz, while his innovative approach to music is reflected by projects involving ethnic and cross-over styles. In July 2016 he conducts Final Symphony in San Diego, Baltimore and San Francisco before returning to conduct it in Auckland in October.