Stirling is fourth conductor finalist at SSO concert March 13
Maestro Jeffrey Stirling is the fourth and final conductor vying for the position of music director of the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra. Stirling will conduct the March 13 concert at 7:30 p.m. in the Stefanie H. Weill Center.
Stirling stated, “I am really looking forward to conducting the Sheboygan Symphony in a program of all- Russian music on the beautiful stage of the Weill Center. The second two musical selections planned by the symphony featured Russian composers. As a result, I selected Kabalevsky’s Colas Breugnon Overture
for my Conductor’s Choice to give our audience an exciting tour of Russian symphonic music from its beginnings in the 19th century up to the recent Soviet era.”
Stirling, a New Jersey native who currently lives in St. Paul, Minn., has led concerts and opera performances across North America and Europe. He is currently the music director of the Saint Paul Civic Symphony and the Northeast Orchestra. He has been a cover conductor for the Minnesota Orchestra and appeared as a guest conductor with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Bemidji Symphony, Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra, Skylark Opera, Dorian Opera and other regional ensembles.
Stirling holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale and a master’s and doctorate from Northwestern University. He pursued advanced studies at the Paris Conservatory and has participated in conducting programs at the Tanglewood music festival, Salzburg music festivals and the Fontainebleau School. In 2001, Stirling was one of only 10 conductors chosen by Leonard Slatkin to take part in the National Conducting Institute at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Stirling’s mentors have included Pierre Boulez, Leonard Slatkin, Seiji Ozawa, Victor Yampolsky and the late Charles Bruck.
A sought-after orchestra educator, Stirling has been a conductor with the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies since 2002, served as interim director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Minnesota and directed the orchestral programs at Luther College, Gustavus Adolphus College, the University of Northern Iowa, and St. Cloud State University. He was a visiting artist at St. Olaf College and has been a guest instructor for the Chamber Music Association of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.
The March concert will also place the spotlight on violinist Jeanyi Kim. She is associate concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony and concertmaster of the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra. Kim has served as a guest assistant concertmaster of the London Symphony.
Kim holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University, from which she also earned her BA, MM, and MMA degrees.
