Michael Stern (conductor)

Michael Stern (born 17 December 1959) is a noted American symphony conductor. Currently, he serves as the music director and lead conductor of the Kansas City Symphony in Kansas City, Missouri. He is also the founding music director of the IRIS Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee.

Stern is the son of violinist Isaac Stern. He obtained his undergraduate degree in American history from Harvard College in 1981. Subsequently, he studied under conductor Max Rudolf at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, graduating in 1986. Stern also studied for one summer at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute and for two summers at the Pierre Monteux Memorial School in Hancock, Maine.

In May 1986, only weeks before his graduation from the Curtis Institute, Stern auditioned for and won the job of Conducting Assistant at The Cleveland Orchestra, where the Music Director was Christoph von Dohnányi. The audition and the position were both organized under the aegis of the Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductor's Program. Stern officially was named a full assistant conductor the following season, and stayed with the orchestra until 1991. In September 1986, he debuted at the New York Philharmonic as one of three young conductors whom Leonard Bernstein invited to participate in a conducting workshop which culminated in two concerts at Avery Fisher Hall.

That year, Stern became the permanent guest conductor of the Orchestre National de Lyon in Lyon, France. During his four years with the Orchestre National, he also appeared with orchestras in Paris, Bordeaux, Lille, and Toulouse, as well as others throughout Europe.

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