Carl St. Clair

Conductor

This “Götterdämmerung” is a triumph for Carl St. Clair, who performs magic of the senses with his Staatskapelle and one of the most complex scores on the musical Olympus [...]. The Kapelle under its leader is simply brilliant.

Leipziger Volkszeitung, July 2008

North American-born conductor Carl St. Clair took up his position as General Music Director of the Komische Oper Berlin in the 2008/09 season. In anticipation of his new post, in 2007/08 he conducted a new production of La Bohème, directed by Andreas Homoki, and two symphony concerts to mark the start of this new appointment. 2009/10 marks his 20th anniversary as Chief Conductor of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, California.

Carl St. Clair is a regular guest with all major orchestras worldwide. In North America, he has led the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco, Detroit, Atlanta and Houston Symphonies. In Europe, St. Clair has appeared with the Bamberg Symphony, the Frankfurt Radio, the Cologne Radio (WDR), the Frankfurt Opera- and Museum-Orchestra, the Hannover Radio (NDR Radiophilharmonie), the Hamburg Radio (NDR Symphony Orchestra), Leipzig Radio (MDR) and many others.

With his career spanning both sides of the Atlantic, Carl St. Clair was Music Director of the Deutsche National Theater and Staatskapelle Weimar from 2005/2006–2008/2009, the culmination of which recently saw him conduct a critically acclaimed new production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Between 1998 and 2005, he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart. In the USA from 1985–1992, he was Music Director of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra having only just completed his position as Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1986.

Largely influenced by a close association with Leonard Bernstein, St. Clair’s dedication to the development and performance of new works by American composers is evident in the wealth of commissions and recordings by Pacific Symphony during his tenure. Under his guidance, the orchestra has commissioned works which have subsequently been recorded, including Elliot Goldenthal’s Fire Water Paper: A Vietnam Oratorio on Sony Classical with cellist Yo–Yo Ma. Another highly acclaimed Sony Classical recording includes later works by Takemitsu. For Koch Classics he recorded a disc with 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. With the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart he recorded all the Villa-Lobos symphonies for the cpo label.

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.

Carl St. Clair studied opera and orchestra conducting at the University of Texas where he studied with Walter Ducloux, a former pupil of Weingartner and Furtwängler. St. Clair counts among his mentors Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa and Kurt Masur.

SEASON 2009/2010