Carl St. Clair
Conductor
“This last evening with conductor Carl St. Clair [Komische Oper] is a triumph.” Berliner Morgenpost, July 2010
North American-born conductor Carl St. Clair is Music Director of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in California. His lengthy history with the Symphony solidifies the strong relationship he has forged with the musicians and the community. Carl St. Clair has become widely recognized for his musically distinguished performances, his commitment to building outstanding educational programmes and his innovative approaches to programming.
With his career spanning both sides of the Atlantic, Carl St. Clair was General Music Director of the Komische Oper in Berlin between 2008 and 2010 where he led many very successful new opera productions such as La Traviata (directed by Hans Neuenfels), the world-premiere of Christian Jost’s opera Hamlet with Stella Doufexis in the title role and a new production of Reimann’s Lear (also by Hans Neuenfels), which not only the audience and press rated highly but which also enthused the composer himself.
As Music Director of the Deutsche National Theater and Staatskapelle Weimar from 2005 – 2008, Carl St. Clair initiated and conducted a critically acclaimed new production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Between 1998 and 2005, he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart with whom he recorded all the Villa-Lobos symphonies for the cpo label. In the USA, he was Music Director of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra from 1985–1992, having only just completed his position as Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1986.
Carl St. Clair is a regular guest with major orchestras worldwide. In North America, he has led the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco, Detroit, Atlanta and Houston Symphonies. In Germany, he has appeared with the Bamberg Symphony, the Frankfurt Radio, Cologne Radio (WDR), Frankfurt Museum-Orchestra, Hannover Radio (NDR Radiophilharmonie), Hamburg Radio (NDR Symphony Orchestra), Leipzig Radio (MDR) and many others.
Largely influenced by a close association with Leonard Bernstein, St. Clair’s dedication to the development and performance of new works especially by American composers is evident in the wealth of commissions and recordings by Pacific Symphony. Under his guidance, the orchestra has commissioned works such as most recently Philip Glass’ The Passion of Ramakrishna, William Bolcom’s lied-cycle Canciones de Lorca which was premiered by Placido Domingo and Chen Yi’s cello concerto composed for cellist Yo-Yo Ma Ballad, Dance and Fantasy. Many have subsequently been recorded, including Elliot Goldenthal’s Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio on Sony Classical also with Yo–Yo Ma. Another highly acclaimed Sony Classical recording includes later works by Toru Takemitsu. For Koch Classics he recorded works by Frank Tichely and John Corigliano. In 2001, the recording of Richard Danielpour’s An American Requiem, another commissioned work, was recorded for Reference Recordings.
This season in Europe, Carl St. Clair will return to the MDR Leipzig Radio as well as the Duisburg Philharmonic orchestras.
In 1990, Carl St. Clair was awarded the “National Endowment for the Arts – Seaver Conductors Awards”, the most important national arts award in the US.
St. Clair studied opera and orchestra conducting at the University of Texas with Walter Ducloux, a former pupil of Weingartner and Furtwängler. St. Clair counts among his mentors Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa and Kurt Masur.
SEASON 2011/2012
