Music Director Eckehard Stier

Eckehard Stier is the Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, General Music Director of the Görlitz Opera, and Chief Conductor of the Neue Lausitz Philharmonic Orchestra in Germany.

He studied orchestral conducting, piano and coaching at the College of Music of his home town Dresden. He was a member of the famous Dresden Kreuzchor, first prize winner of the Rudolf-Mauersberger scholarschip and scholar of the Richard-Wagner Scholarship Foundation.

With a broad repertoire of more than 100 operas Eckehard Stier became well known as an opera conductor. His interpretations of the works of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner in particular received broad acclaim from both audiences and critics.

Numerous concert engagements have taken him to Australia, Finland, France, Greece, Japan, Croatia, Norway, Austria, Poland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.

Maestro Stier has made guest appearances with the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Staatskapelle Halle, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Radio Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra Chemnitz and the WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne. In 2012 he makes his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Duisburger Philharmoniker.

He collaborates with famous soloists including Alina Ibragimova, Ragna Schirmer, Natalia Lomeiko, Gilles Apap, Cédric Tiberghien, Nikolai Demidenko, Andreas Boyde and Per Arne Glorvigen.

Eckehard Stier has built strong audience and critical support for his distinguished performances as well as his championing of contemporary and lesser-known masterworks. With Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra he has conducted the New Zealand premieres of John Corigliano’s Mannheim Rocket and Campane di Ravello, John Adams’s The Wound Dresser, Paul Schoenfield’s Four Parables for Piano and Orchestra and Duke Ellington’s tone poem Harlem. Maestro Stier’s interpretations of the symphonic works of Mahler and Shostakovich are internationally acclaimed.

Eckehard Stier is an exceptionally versatile artist. Beside his activity as a conductor he is a popular pianist for recitals and chamber concerts, in improvising, accompanying and interpreting silent movies, and in jazz.

Eckehard Stier is proudly supported by SIEMENS.