Eckehard Stier is the Music Director and Chief Conductor
of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, General Music Director of the
Görlitz Opera, and Chief Conductor of the Neue Lausitz Philharmonic
Orchestra in Germany.
He studied orchestral conducting, piano and coaching at the
College of Music of his home town Dresden. He was a member of the famous
Dresden Kreuzchor and first prize winner of the Rudolf-Mauersberger
scholarschip and scholar of the Richard-Wagner Scholarship Foundation.
With a broad repertoire of more than 100 operas Eckehard Stier
became well known as an opera conductor. Especially his interpretations of the
works of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner received broad acclaim, both by
audience and by critics.
Numerous concert engagements took him to Australia, Finland,
France, Greece, Japan, Croatia, Norway, Austria, Poland, Switzerland and the
Czech Republic.
Maestro Stier has made guest appearances with the Staatskapelle
Dresden, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra,
Staatskapelle Halle, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Radio Symphony
Orchestra Leipzig, the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra Chemnitz and the
WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne. In 2012 he will make his debut with the London
Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Duisburger
Philharmoniker.
Regularly, he collaborates with famous soloists like Alina
Ibragimova, Ragna Schirmer, Natalia Lomeiko, Gilles Apap, Cédric
Tiberghien, Nikolai Demidenko, Andreas Boyde and Per Arne Glorvigen.
Eckehard Stier has built strong audience and critics' support
for his distinguished performances as well as his championing of contemporary
and lesser-known masterworks. With the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Eckehard
Stier has conducted the New Zealand premieres of John Corigliano's Mannheim
Rocket and Campane di Ravello, John Adams' The Wound Dresser, Paul
Schoenfield's Four Parables for Piano and Orchestra, Duke Ellington's tone poem
Harlem. His interpretation of the symphonic oeuvre of Mahler and Shostakovich
is internationally highly valued.
Eckehard Stier is an exceptionally versatile artist. Beside his
activity as a conductor he is a popular pianist for recitals and chamber
concerts, in improvising, accompanying and interpreting silent movies and in
jazz.