Stephen Somary |
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Founder, Artistic Director, and Principal Conductor of The Mendelssohn Project New York-born conductor Stephen Somary makes numerous guest appearances with leading orchestras of the world. Based in Germany since 1993, Somary has conducted and recorded with many of that country's orchestras, including the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Nürnberg Symphony Orchestra, and the Thüringen Philharmonic. An acclaimed interpreter of American repertoire, Stephen Somary's discography includes a recording on the Claves Records label with the Nürnberg Symphony of Ives's "Symphony No. 2," Barber's "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" and the world premiere recording of Cowell's "Symphonic Set, Op. 17". Le Monde de la Musique describes this recording as: "A vitally important disc . . . The Ives proves a worthy comparison to the three existing versions - two by Bernstein and one by Tilson-Thomas." Somary has also made three recordings of the music of the American composer David Chesky with the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg-Berlin and the Slovak Philharmonic: "Excellent playing and recording" (Gramophone), "Well played and beautifully recorded" ( Billboard ). Another CD for Claves Records with the Thüringen Philharmonic features Elgar's "Symphony No. 1": " . . . a gifted young American, Stephen Somary . . . paces the entire work in a manner which marks him as both a born conductor and a serious, dedicated musician . . . I should not be surprised if his future career establishes him as one of the most admired conductors of his generation." ( Musical Opinion , London). In New York, Stephen Somary has earned critical acclaim conducting performances of Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms" at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the United States Premiere on Period Instruments of Mendelssohn's "Lobgesang" at the Cathedral of St. Patrick. Recent seasons have included engagements for Maestro Somary in England, the United States, Germany, France, Russia and Slovakia. Many of these concerts have featured unpublished works by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. In addition to his other activities, Stephen Somary has dedicated a large portion of his time over the past nine years to The Mendelssohn Project, which he founded and of which he is Music Director and Principal Conductor. This organization has researched the vast amount of unpublished music, letters and artworks by Mendelssohn with the goal of opening hundreds of unknown works to the public through CDs, concerts, books, film, theatre, and other media forms, as well as the creation of The Mendelssohn Center in New York City and in Germany. Stephen Somary's early career was shaped by studies with Henry Bloch, with his father - the noted choral conductor Johannes Somary, Eiji Oue at Boston University, Norman Del Mar at the Royal College of Music, London, and with Leonard Bernstein, for whom he served as Music Assistant from 1984 until 1990 and as Composition Assistant for Bernstein's "Arias and Barcarolles" and the revisions of "Songfest".
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