ARI RIFKIN MUSIC DIRECTOR
DAVID STERN is much admired in the worlds of music and opera as an exceptional conductor, creator of inspiring original projects, an educator of the singers of tomorrow, and an outstanding musician. His multi-faceted career has three main pillars: symphonic music, opera, and education.
As orchestral conductor, Stern has led recent performances with the Royal Danish Opera Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Basel, and the Lübeck Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a regular guest of the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover, and he was the chief conductor of the Philharmonie Südwestphalen from 1995 to 1998. In China, he frequently conducts the country’s three principal orchestras: the Shanghai Symphony, the China Philharmonic in Beijing, and the Guangzhou Symphony. In cooperation with the Shanghai Symphony Association, he is also the jury co-chair of the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition.
In 2024, David Stern was appointed as the Ari Rifkin Music Director of Palm Beach Opera after serving as chief conductor since 2015. He is the former music director of the Israeli Opera and Theater St. Gallen in Switzerland, and he has also worked with Opéra de Lyon, English National Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, and the operas of Metz and Massy in France, among others. He recently conducted two of the leading tenors of today, Michael Spyres and Lawrence Brownlee, in concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.
In the field of education, he founded Opera Fuoco in 2003 as a platform for young professional singers in France, combining both a young artist program and a period-instrument orchestra under the banner of his company, which produces concertante, semistaged and fully-staged productions both nationally and internationally. David Stern and Opera Fuoco have been regularly invited to the Paris Philharmonie, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, as well as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Luzern Festival, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and the Shanghai Symphony Hall. Opera Fuoco began a multi-year residency at Opéra de Massy in 2024, with works by Handel, Mozart, and Bernstein, as well as a new production of Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses with celebrated hip-hop choreographer Anne Nguyen. Recent and upcoming performances include Handel’s Hercules in Paris and Belgium, Puccini’s La bohème in France and Sweden, as well as an original pairing of two masterpieces by Leonard Bernstein: the opera Trouble in Tahiti and the song cycle Arias and Barcarolles. Entitled “Anatomy of Love”, it will be staged by Elsa Rooke for performances in Paris and the Opéra de Massy. Opera Fuoco recently celebrated their 20th Anniversary with a Gala concert.
Stern’s strong interest in working with and developing young voices grew out of the academy he launched with Stéphane Lissner at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 1998, the Académie International d’Art Lyrique. He has regular engagements with young artist programs in Sweden, China, and the United States, including productions with the opera programs of The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute, where he recently conducted Handel’s Ariodante and Monteverdi’s Orfeo. Among his extensive discography are recordings of Handel’s Semele and Jephtha, Johann Christian Bach’s Zanaida, Giovanni Simone Mayr’s L’amor conjugale and Medea in Corinto, and a recital of French Romantic Cantatas with Karine Deshayes and the Opera Fuoco Orchestra.
Stern received his Bachelor of Arts from Yale College and his Master of Music from The Juilliard School.
