Adam Stern

ADAM STERN, Music Director / Conductor of the Port Angeles Symphony
Orchestra and the Seattle Philharmonic, was born in Hollywood in 1955. He
began his musical studies at age five as a piano student; two years later he
also began flute lessons. At 15 he was accepted at California Institute of
the Arts, where he initially majored in flute performance. In his second
year, he changed his major to conducting at the urging ofhis teacher, the
late noted conductor and educator Gerhard Samuel. Stern was graduated in
1977 with an MF A in conducting at age 21, the youngest student in CalArts'
history to earn a Masters degree. Stern has since been primarily active as a
conductor, also as a composer and pianist. He was the Associate Conductor of
the Seattle Symphony from 1996 to 2001 (after having served as Assistant
Conductor from 1992-96), and conducted concerts in all of the orchestra's
major series. Highlights of his programming include the Seattle Symphony
premieres of Vaughan Williams' Symphony No.3 ("Pastoral") and Elgar's
Symphony No.2. In addition to conducting numerous classical concerts, Stern
also made several ventures into the "pops" field, collaborating with such
artists as James Taylor, Judy Collins, Art Garfunkel, Doc Severinsen and
Frank Sinatra, Jr. Stern was also the Music Director of the Northwest
Chamber Orchestra from 1994-2000, and is credited with greatly expanding the
orchestra's repertoire, increasing audience support, and generally improving
the orchestra's sound and flexibility .

A strong supporter of music which he feels has been unjustly neglected,
Stern has many local and West Coast premieres to his credit. Since moving to
Seattle in 1992, he has conducted the Northwest premieres of Vaughan
Williams' Symphony No. 9, Holst's Egdon Heath, Copland's Statements, Bernard
Herrmann's Symphony, and major works by Roque Cordero, Richard Danielpour,
Goffredo Petrassi, Gerhard Samuel, Gerard Schurmann, James Tenney and
Aurelio de la Vega.

Stern has been a guest-conductor throughout the United States. He has led
concerts with theMilwaukee Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Boulder
(Colorado) Philharmonic, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the
Symphonic Wind Ensemble at Michigan State University, the Sacramento
Symphony, and Chamber Music Northwest in Portland. His New York orchestral
conducting debut took place in 1998, in an acclaimed all Baroque concert
with the New York Chamber Symphony at Alice Tully Hall. In 2002, Stern
conducted two major works for the stage: "The Most Happy Fella" at Seattle's
5th Avenue Theatre, and "The Marriage of Figaro" with the Rainier Lyric
Opera.

A busy pianist, Stern has been featured as a soloist and chamber musician
with the Seattle Symphony and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra. One of his
most famous performances was in January 1998, when he filled in on several
hours' notice for an indisposed soloist. Stern performed Gershwin ' s
Rhapsody in Blue with the Seattle Symphony and guest-conductor Yoel Levi,
resulting in standing ovations at both performances. Stern has also been
heard in concertos by Bach (Nos. 3 and 6) and Mozart (Nos. 13 and 19, and
the Two-Piano Concerto).

As a composer, Stern has had particular success writing for the stage. He
has composed incidental music for productions of "A Midsummer Night's
Dream," "King Lear ," "The Winter's Tale," "Waiting for the Parade" and
"Sweet Eros." His score for "Richard III" earned him a Los Angeles
Dramalogue Award for Best Original Score. Locally, Stern has composed four
works for A Contemporary Theatre: "The Red and the Black", "Alki", "The
Pillowman", and "A Christmas Carol," the latter score used every year since
its premiere in 1996. Stern's most recent work for the concert hall is
Fanfare Pastorale, written for the Seattle Philharmonic and premiered in the
spring of 2005.

Stern has enjoyed a widely varied career. For two years he was a music
copyist for Frank Zappa ("one of the nicest persons for whom I've ever
worked"); he appeared in the Richard Dreyfuss film "The Competition" as
sour-faced pianist Mark Landau; and he had a successful "side-career" as a
producer of classical recordings. He is most proud of the extensive series
of recordings he made with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony. In 1990
Stern won a Grammy Award as "Classical Producer of the Year ," principally
due to his work on the Schwarz/Seattle recordings.