Stephen Gunzenhauser

Stephen Charles Gunzenhauser (born April 8, 1942) is an American conductor of classical music. He was the music director of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra for 40 years, retiring after the 2019–20 season. In 2005, he founded the Endless Mountain Music Festival, an annual summer music festival held in towns in Pennsylvania and New York. Gunzenhauser has recorded for Naxos and other labels. He is the 5th most recorded American conductor.

Early life and education Stephen Charles Gunzenhauser was born in New York, on April 8, 1942. He attended the High School of Music & Art. He then studied at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1963, and at the Salzburg Mozarteum. He trained further at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, taking a master's degree in 1965. He held three Fulbright grants and completed his education at the Cologne Hochschule für Musik, where he was awarded an artist diploma in 1968.

Career

In 1967, Gunzenhauser took first prize in the Santiago conducting competition, and from 1967 to 1969 he guest-conducted the Rhenish Chamber Orchestra, Cologne. He was assistant conductor to Igor Markevitch and l'Orchestre National de l'Opera de Monte Carlo (1968−69), and to Leopold Stokowski and the American Symphony Orchestra in New York (1969−70). During Game 6 of the 1993 NLCS; he was conducting the seventh inning stretch at Veterans Stadium when a fan stole his baton.

In 2005, Gunzenhauser started the Endless Mountain Music Festival. The festival has a 62-piece orchestra made up of an internationally diverse group of musicians. It is held every summer in cities and towns on the Pennsylvania and New York borders, including Canton, Blossburg, Mansfield, Troy, and Wellsboro, Pennsylvania; and Corning and Elmira, New York. Gunzenhauser first had the idea for the festival when he was visiting the region on a trip with his wife, and was impressed with the area’s natural beauty and the gaslit main street of Wellsboro.

Awards and honors In 1990, the state of Delaware appointed Gunzenhauser as the state's First Cultural Ambassador. His 1991 cycle of the nine symphonies of Dvořák was praised. In Gramophone, Ivan March wrote of the conductor:

Recordings conducted by Gunzenhauser include: ComposerWorkSoloists/chorusOrchestra Beethoven Overtures: Consecration of the House, Coriolan, Egmont, Leonore No. 3, Prometheus, The Ruins of Athens Slovak Philharmonic Bloch Symphony In C-sharp minor Slovak Philharmonic Brahms Violin Concerto Takako Nishizaki Slovak Philharmonic Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 Takako Nishizaki Slovak Philharmonic Dvořák Symphonies 1–9, Symphonic Variations Slovak Philharmonic Glière Symphony No. 1, and The Sirens Slovak Philharmonic Grieg Peer Gynt Suites, Lyric Pieces, Sigurd Jorsalfar orchestral music CSSR State Philharmonic Mozart Violin Concertos 3–5 Takako Nishizaki Capella Istropolitana Mozart Sinfonia Concertante Takako Nishizaki, Ladislav Kyselák Capella Istropolitana Orff Carmina Burana Eva Jenisová, Vladimir Doležal, Ivan Kusnjer, Slovak Radio Chorus Slovak Radio Symphony Paganini Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 Ilya Kaler Polish National Radio Symphony Rubinstein Symphony No. 2, "Ocean" Slovak Philharmonic Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3, "Organ" Slovak Radio Symphony Schumann Piano Concerto, and Introduction and Allegro Appassionato Sequeira Costa Gulbenkian Orchestra Taneyev Symphonies Nos. 2 and 4 Polish State Philharmonic Vivaldi The Four Seasons, Concerto alla rustica Takako Nishizaki Capella Istropolitana Source: