David Štech

    David Štech

    This season with dell'Arte: Tickets, Please / The Seven Deadly SinsTickets, Please!.

    David Štech (Conductor, Anna Bolena) is the artistic director of the New York Conducting Institute and assistant conductor at Sarasota Opera, Opera Southwest, and the Missouri Symphony. He has conducted the Florida Orchestra, the Martinů Philharmonic, the New Symphony Orchestra (Bulgaria), and others. He’s also worked with Charlottesville Opera, St. Petersburg Opera, Opera Theater of Lucca Italy, and Opera in Williamsburg. Štech has served on the faculties of DePaul and Roosevelt Universities, the University of Illinois in Chicago, and the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, where he conducted premieres of student works, played dozens of recitals, and coached hundreds of singers. He has served as music director of American Opera Group, Chicago Choral Artists, and the Astoria Symphony, and has appeared regularly as guest conductor at New York Lyric Opera.  Štech’s musical career has followed a path that was once traditional but has become uncommon: study multiple instruments and voice, learn music theory and history, learn standard repertoire in multiple disciplines as an apprentice, study with established conductors, lead orchestras and choruses, and if one is lucky, conduct operas. Using this slow-and-steady model Štech studied the organ, trombone, and voice as a young musician. In college he took every opportunity to explore the breadth of choral, operatic and orchestral music. His diverse tastes also lead him to study Eastern European folk music and dance, early music, church music, and symphonic band literature. And after finishing a masters degree in orchestral conducting at Northwestern, he became a conducting fellow with the League of American Orchestras, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Chorus. He was invited to Tanglewood where he was awarded the Leonard Bernstein conducting fellowship. Having since worked in various opera houses as a coach, pianist, chorus master, and serving as assistant conductor, he is at home with instrumentalists and singers, and has honed the craft of inspiring their best performances.

    A proponent of music education, Štech has brought interactive performances to public schools and is a respected adjudicator for high school music festivals and competitions. He is founding artistic director of the New York Conducting Institute, which produces professional conducting workshops, symposia, and conferences, designed to provide opportunities for conductors at all levels of experience to study with exceptional pedagogues, and to network with colleagues, publicists, and artist managers. Among NYCI’s initiatives is advocacy for female conductors, who are vastly underrepresented, especially on the opera podium.  Štech’s own mentors include Kurt Masur, Gustav Meier, Paul Nadler, Larry Rachleff, Donald Schleicher, Kirk Trevor, and he is an alumnus of the Pierre Monteux School for conductors. He is currently associate organist and choirmaster of St. John’s Anglican Episcopal Church in Passaic, NJ.

     

    https://www.david-stech.com/