Stephanie Childress

Assistant Conductor

Second prize winner at the inaugural conducting competition, La Maestra, held in Paris in autumn 2020, Stephanie Childress is making her mark as a conductor and has been likened to “other notable young conductors of the past such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Sir Simon Rattle” (Varsity).  In the 2020/2021 season, Childress debuted with the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and Orchestre de Paris. She began her tenure as Assistant Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 2021.

 Childress established her own ensemble, Orchestra Rheia, in 2019, leading them to make their first public performance of Johannes Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem in May of the same year. She was also appointed to the position of Principal Conductor of the London Lawyers’ Symphony Orchestra for the 2019/2020 season. Other highlights of the season included leading the Chineke! Juniors Orchestra in concerts at the Southbank Centre and covering performances of Giuseppe Verdi’s Luisa Miller at English National Opera for conductor Alexander Joel.

Establishing herself in both symphonic repertoire and opera, Stephanie has already conducted a number of productions, including Jeremy Sams’ The Enchanted Island with the British Youth Opera, Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at St John’s College (Cambridge), Lennox Berkeley’s A Dinner Engagement for the Cambridge University Opera Society, and the world premiere of Anna Semple’s opera The Next Station is Green Park at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Childress is a regular assistant for Sir Simon Rattle, and has attended masterclasses with esteemed conductors such as Sir Mark Elder, Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Sian Edwards, Colin Metters, and most recently with Jukka-Pekka Saraste at the LEAD! Festival in Finland.

As a violinist, Childress rose to prominence when she became a finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition in both 2016 and 2018. She was featured in the BBC’s 2019 Proms Launch Video ahead of her Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall with the Southbank Sinfonia and Jessica Cottis. Shortly after, Childress performed alongside the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at Glasgow’s Proms in the Park.

Known not only as a fantastic conductor and violinist, Stephanie is an active supporter of the Tri-borough Music Hub, an award-winning organization for music education. She has taken part in a number of programs with the association, including leading the junior string ensemble at an Artists for Inclusivity event and speaking at the Youth Music Conference held at the Royal College of Music in February 2020. Last summer she appeared on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune and BBC Proms Extra, as well as joining adjudicating panels for the RPS Awards (Storytelling Category) and the Ivor Novello Awards (Orchestral Category) last September.