Contact
Karoline Jacobkj@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-221
Victoria Monterovm@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-237
General Management(USA: Opus 3; Opera EU: with Sorek Artists)
Originally recorded for a film, this masterful interpretation of Mahler's Wunderhorn Lieder with baritone Dietrich Henschel and the Bochumer Symphoniker under Steven Sloane has now been released on CD.
Journalist Barry Davis (The Jerusalem Post) accompanied the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra's tour of Germany and drew an enthusiastic account of the first concert tour after the lockdown.
Jerusalem Calling: Steven Sloane on New Journey
Artistic vision and tireless cultural-political commitment: these are the qualities that have made the Los Angeles-born American-Israeli conductor Steven Sloane known worldwide. A former student of Eugene Ormandy, Franco Ferrara and Gary Bertini, he made his mark on festivals and opera houses such as the Spoleto Festival in Charleston or Opera North in Leeds early on. He has also served as principal conductor of the American Composers Orchestra and the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, as well as Artistic Director for the European Capital of Culture Year RUHR.2010.
From 1994 to 2021, Steven Sloane was Music Director of the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, which became one of Germany's leading orchestras under his leadership. One of his greatest achievements was the realisation of the orchestra's own concert hall, the Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr, which was successfully opened in 2016. Other extraordinary successes of his work with the Bochum Symphony included the exceptional production of Zimmermann's Die Soldaten at the Ruhrtriennale (2006) and at New York's Lincoln Center Festival (2008), the acclaimed Mahler/Ives cycle at the Philharmonie Essen, as well as numerous CD projects, including the complete recording of the orchestral works of Joseph Marx. As an honorary conductor, he remains closely associated with the orchestra and the city of Bochum. In 2022 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
As music director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (2020-2023), Steven Sloane brought the orchestra on a highly successful tour of Germany in June 2021. During the 2022/23 season, he was a guest conductor at the Frankfurt Opera for a new production of The Magic Flute, and David Lang's opera Prisoner of the State received its premiere performances under his direction in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium (Bochumer Symphoniker), as well as in Sweden at the Malmö Opera.
Steven Sloane is a regular guest conductor with renowned orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Philharmonia Orchestra London, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
As a sought-after opera conductor, he has enjoyed success at such houses as the Royal Opera House London (Le Nozze di Figaro), the L.A. Opera (Dido and Aeneas/Duke Bluebeard's Castle), San Francisco Opera (Wallace: Bonesetter's Daughter), Royal Opera Copenhagen (Madama Butterfly), Grand Théâtre de Genève (Britten: A Midsummer Night's Dream), Houston Grand Opera (The Makropulos Affair, Magic Flute), Welsh National Opera (Iphigénie en Tauride), Deutsche Oper Berlin (The Love for Three Oranges), Stuttgart Opera (Macbeth), Komische Oper Berlin (Reimann: Medea) and Malmö Opera (Der Fliegende Holländer, Tosca and Falstaff ) as well as at festivals in Hong Kong (Salome), Santa Fe (Káťa Kabanová), Edinburgh (Genoveva), Salzburg (Feldman: Neither) and New York (Mark-Anthony Turnage's Anna Nicole at NY City Opera).
Steven Sloane is particularly interested in education and the promotion of young talent, and has conducted the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, the Bundesjugendorchester and the Young Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2013, he has been realising his vision of an International Conducting Academy at the Berlin University of the Arts.
Season 2023/24
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Programme ideas
R. Wagner: Prelude to Parsifal
N. Sheriff: 'Akedah Die Opferung Isaaks' in memory of Itzhak Rabin
S. Odeh-Tamimi: Halat Hissar - Belagerungszustand
R. Strauss: Death and Transfiguration Op. 24
E. Schulhoff: Symphony No. 2
A. Zemlinsky: Symphonic Songs Op. 20
E. W. Korngold: Symphonic Serenade Op. 39
G. Ligeti: Lux aeterna
O. Messiaen: Lascension quatre meditations
R. Wagner: Parsifal, 3rd Act
J. Haydn: Symphony No. 22 in E flat major 'The Philosopher'
F. Zappa: The Adventures of Greggery Peccary
H. Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique
R. Strauss: Metamorphosen
K. Penderecki: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
L. v. Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major Op. 55 'Eroica'
L. Bernstein: Symphony No. 2 'The Age of Anxiety'
J. Corigliano: Red Violin Concerto
J. Adams: Harmonielehre
J. Haydn: Symphony No. 59
G. Ligeti: San Francisco Polyphony
B. Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle
T. Takemitsu: I hear the water dreaming
R. Schumann: Symphony No. 3 'Rhenish'
C. Debussy: La Mer
A. Berg: Wozzeck, 3rd Act, Scene 4 and 5
F. Schreker: Prelude to a drama
A. Webern: Five pieces for orchestra Op. 10
R. Strauss: Suite from 'Der Rosenkavalier'
I. Stravinsky: Rite of Spring
PROJECTS AT RUHRTRIENNALE
B. A. Zimmermann: Die Soldaten, stage direction: David Pountney
H. W. Henze: Giesela! (Uraufführung)
H. Goebbels: Surrogate Cities
H. W. Henze: Das Floß der Medusa
G. Ligeti: Reqiuem
Cycle `Mahler meets Ives` - Excerpts
C. Ives: Three Places in New England
G. MAHLER: Symphony No.5 in C sharp minor
C. Ives: Fireman's Parade on Main Street
C. Ives: Symphony No. 3 'The Camp Meeting'
G. Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D major 'Titan'
G. Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (arr. Schoenberg 1920)
C. Ives: Five Songs (arr. John Adams)
G. Mahler: Symphony No. 4
G. Mahler: Adagio from Symphony No.10
G. Mahler: Kindertotenlieder
C. Ives: Symphony No. 4
"The Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra shone under the musical direction of Steven Sloane with his multi-faceted, vibrant yet delicate conducting."
Bachtrack.com, Alexandra Richter, 23/10/2022
"The Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, conducted by Steven Sloane, [...] made us forget that 'The Magic Flute' is a repertoire piece. Mozart's masterly orchestration was stripped of the ballast of performance tradition and many a refined interplay between the instrumental groups was made audible that is easily lost in the heat of the moment with other orchestras."
Wolfgang Wagner, Concerti.de, 02/10/2022
"A powerful and riveting reading, carried by an orchestra admirably and precisely tuned by Steven Sloane. It is in the most tragic moments that the alchemy best succeeds - Der Tambourg'sell, of course, Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz. But in the elegant (Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen) there is an inwardness of the finest kind, to the point of the intangible."
Sylvain Fort, Magazin Diapason, May 2022, (Des Knaben WUnderhorn CD with Avanticlassic)
"Steven Sloane, who conducts from memory, forms gripping arcs of tension and changes of mood. The hall quakes with the beat of the bass drum in the Infernal Dance, the Lullaby creates an intimate atmosphere – and in the finale Sloane ignites the controlled ecstasy that Stravinsky so brilliantly stages."
Marcus Stäbler, Hamburger Abendblatt, 21/6/2021, ( the "Firebird" Suite by Stravinsky in the Elbphilharmonie)
"Strong in its entirety – both as concerns the singers, orchestra, and choir under Steven Sloane’s musical direction and in director Lotte de Beer’s staging. A gripping and at the same time thought-provoking performance."
Sverigesradio.se, Per Feltzin, 02/2/2019 (The Flying Dutchman)
“The opera and museum orchestra inevitably played an authoritative role once again in the inspiring experience of the (second) revival of this opera. Steven Sloane stood at the podium, with a good view on his former job as first conductor (nearly thirty years ago). With great oversight and passion, he led his orchestra through the demands of the dense task, making for delicate strings and dense, powerful brass.”
Frankfurter Neue Presse, Matthias Gerhart, 29/5/2018 (Adriana Lecouvreur, Oper Frankfurt)
“Mahler's eighty-minute final symphony is a work of haunting beauty. In Sloane´s sensitive and expressive interpretation as conductor, the marvel of timbres, polyphony, and symphonic structures was developed to perfection. And the canon of moods – drama and conflict, grief and tenderness – was kept in remarkable balance. […] Stunning! Given this bold performance, one nearly forgot that the exquisite graciousness with which the evening began.”
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Jürgen Boebers-Süßmann, 12/3/2018
“The house orchestra, under guest conductor Steven Sloane, executes the score’s broad palette of textures with impressive attention to nuance and balance, from gongs that crash in the outer aisles, to detuned, mocking flutes, to squealing brass. It may not always be a pleasant journey, but Reimann’s Medea offers the listener no escape.”
Financial Times, Rebecca Schmid, 23/5/2017
“The real shock of Medea comes from Reimann’s orchestra. As in his Shakespeare opera Lear […], all of the sound’s violence comes from the orchestral pit, which was released into the room with an incredible presence by Steven Sloane and the house orchestra – fierce, seething, wildly faltering string and brass figures, and raw and cracked percussion agglomerations. This was listening as a challenge and a dangerous exercise.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Wolfgang Schreiber, 25/5/2017
“Prégardien, Sloane and the Bochum Symphony are wonderfully matched. They bring a rare, dreamlike quality and sense of other-worldliness to Mahler‘s visions of love and war, life and death. Ghostly woodwind solos and distant trumpet calls make chamber music with Prégardien’s steady but supple lines of long breathed melody. Sloane’s conducting offers bracing support in its alertness to the underlying dance rhythms of so many of these setting.”
BBC Music Magazine, Hilary Finch, 3/2014 “Recording of the Month”
“Steven Sloane moves through Britten’s music like a fish in the waters of a fresh, bubbly and crystal clear source. Immaculate entries from each musician, a rounded and delicate sound, orchestral flow, airy and brisk rhythms.”
Le Temps, Sylvie Bonier, 21/11/2015
“The conductor, Steven Sloane, drew pulsing, feisty and textured playing from the orchestra.”
The New York Times, Anthony Tommasini, 18/9/2013
“Steven Sloane, who already led the baroque orchestra to delicate transparence, unleashed not only the abundance of colours but also the entire force of Bartók’s music.”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Gerhard Schroth, 31/5/2013
“Steven Sloane excelled at bringing out the mockery Prokofiev’s music makes of the theatre of illusion, with sharp contrasts and agility. This made listening to the singers an even greater pleasure.”
Opernwelt, Albrecht Thiemann, 02/2013
Lavri - Jerusalem, Symphonic Poem (world première)Bach - Keyboard Concerto in g minor, BWV 1056 (arr. for mandolin)Avital - Avi's SongDvořák - Symphony No. 9, From the New World
Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra
A. Reimann: Medea, Making of, Komische Oper Berlin
Mahlers 9. Sinfonie
Steven Sloane dirigiert das Symphonieorchester der UdK Berlin. Die Aufzeichung aus der Berliner Philharmonie finden Sie hier.
"The Suite is extraordinarily rich and brilliantly performed"BBC Music Magazine - December 2020
At the suggestion of former President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and its new chief conductor Steven Sloane are planning a concert tour from 21 – 27 June 2021 to Berlin and Bochum as an important contribution to the German-Jewish festival year 1700 years of Jewish life in Germany. As one of the principal Israeli orchestras, the JSO will be making its guest appearance in Germany for the first time in over a decade.
Bochumer Symphoniker, Steven Sloanecpo 777 702-2, 2020
Philippe Quint, Bochumer Symphoniker, Steven Sloane, Avanti Classic, 2553731, 2018
Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Laura Aikin u.a., live recording, Challenge Classics CC 72685, 2015
Antje Weithaas, Stavanger Symfoniorkester, Steven SloaneAvi LC 15080, 2013
Christoph Prégardien, Bochumer Symphoniker, Steven SloaneCPO 777 675-2, 2013, BBC Recording of the Month
Rebecca Nelsen, Ray M. Wade Jr., William Dazeley, E. Mark Murphy, Piotr Prochera; Bochumer Symphoniker, Steven SloaneCPO Cpo777545-2, 2011
Herbert Grönemeyer, Bochumer Symphoniker, Steven SloaneEMI 5099962773928, 2010
Dimitri Vassilakis, Reinhold Friedrich, Bochumer Symphoniker, Steven SloaneCybele Records ISBN 978-3-937794-10-5, 2010
Christiane Oelze, Antje Weithaas, Tabea Zimmermann, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Steven SloaneCapriccio 1040775, 2009
Claudia Barainsky et al., Bochumer Symphoniker, Steven Sloane, Director: David PountneyDORO/ Ruhr Triennale DVD-9, 2006
Sophie Koch, Reinhold Friedrich, Tabea Zimmermann, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Steven SloaneCapriccio CD 67076, 2004
Bochum Symphony Orchestra, Steven SloaneASV CD DCA 1137, 2003
Angela Maria Blasi, Stella Doufexis, Bochum Symphony Orchestra, Steven SloaneASV CD DCA 1164, 2003
Bochum Symphony Orchestra, Steven SloaneASV CD DCA 1158, 2003
David Lively, Bochum Symphony Orchestra, Steven SloaneASV CD DCA 1174, 2004