Eckehard Stier

Born and raised in Dresden, conductor Eckehard Stier feels like a musical citizen of the world. From being a member of the famous Dresden Kreuzchor, he went on to become GMD of the Gerhard-Hauptmann-Theater in Görlitz and Chief Conductor of the New Lausitz Philharmonic, and Music Director of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in New Zealand. At the beginning of 2023 Eckehard Stier was appointed Primo Direttore Ospite (Principal Guest Conductor) d’Orchestra del Teatro Massimo Bellini. Debuts take him to the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestra della Fondazione Arena di Verona and the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

He has appeared on four continents in numerous engagements with orchestras such as the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Dresden, San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Munich Symphony Orchestra, MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, and Robert Schumann Philharmonic Chemnitz among many others.

Engagements of the past seasons again included concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra in London and Paris. Eckehard Stier also made his debut in St. Petersburg and returned to the Orchestra of the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Italy. Further engagements took him to the Nuremberg State Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Swan, the Royal Danish Orchestra, the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest, the Essen Philharmonic and with the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic to the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festival, as well as again to the Orchestra of the Teatro Massimo Bellini, the Robert Schumann Philharmonic in Chemnitz, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Funkhaus Orchestra Cologne and the Bochum Symphony Orchestra.

Musical encounters with leading soloists such as Alina Ibragimova, Cloë Hanslip, Nicolas Altstaedt, Ragna Schirmer, Natalia Lomeiko, Maxim Rysanow, Gilles Apap, Cédric Tiberghien, Nikolai Demidenko, Andreas Boyde and Per Arne Glorvigen or Raphael Wallfisch have led to long-lasting cooperations.

Eckehard Stier has conducted a broad repertoire of more than 80 stage works and established a reputation as an opera conductor. In particular, his interpretations of works by Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner have been highly praised by both press and audience.

He is enthusiastically committed to the training of young conductors, both at the Dresden Music Academy and as a member of Symphony Services International in Australia.

His openness and his anything but conservative approach to music is both credo and reason for his travels around the musical world. This leads him again and again to inspiring foreign cultures and diverse crossover projects as a conductor as well as a pianist.