Ward Stare

Resident Conductor and Music Director of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra (SLSYO)

American conductor Ward Stare is currently in his second season as the Resident Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, having been appointed by Music Director David Robertson in the fall of 2008.  In April 2009, he made his highly successful Carnegie Hall debut with the SLSO, stepping in at the last minute to conduct while Maestro Robertson made his debut as chansonnier in H.K. Gruber’s Frankenstein!!.  Mr. Stare was described by Sarah Bryan Miller of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as “…just terrific, leading the eclectic score with confidence and style; the musicians followed along perfectly."

In August 2007, Mr. Stare made his critically acclaimed debut with The Cleveland Orchestra at the famed Blossom Music Center followed by a year serving as the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s American Symphony Orchestra League Conducting Fellow, at the invitation of Esa-Pekka Salonen.  In this capacity he conducted concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on both the Philharmonic's Toyota Symphonies for Youth and Neighborhood Concert Series. 

Recent seasons have also included appearances with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, both in Moscow and on the orchestra's 2007 North American Tour, as well as a special performance with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra as part of the Orchestra's "Great Artists of the World" series celebrating the 80th birthday of the King of Thailand. The 2008/09 season included Mr. Stare’s debut with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin, Germany, as second conductor with Sir Andrew Davis in Ives’ Symphony No. 4.

 Mr. Stare makes his subscription debut with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2009.  Other upcoming engagements include Mozart’s Requiem with the Memphis Symphony, as well as Mr. Stare’s conducting debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Mr. Stare was the recipient of both the Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize (2006) and the Aspen Conducting Prize (2007) at the Aspen Music Festival and returned in the summer of 2008 as Assistant Conductor to the Festival and its Music Director, David Zinman.  In addition to his studies with Maestro Zinman, he has worked with Janos Furst and Jorma Panula as well as working with Michel Merlet in composition and musical analysis. 

Following in the path of many great orchestral conductors whose careers began as instrumentalists, Mr. Stare was trained as a trombonist at the Juilliard School in Manhattan.  At the age of 18, he was appointed principal trombonist of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and has performed as an orchestral musician with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, among others.  As a soloist, he has concertized in both the US and Europe.