David Stern is Music Director of the Israel Opera, the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra and Opera, and Opera Fuoco, Paris. A native New Yorker, Stern conducts Baroque music with the same intensity as later repertoire, and is equally comfortable with period instrument ensembles as with symphonic orchestras.
Stern continues as Music Director of Israel Opera and  future projects include Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana, Leoncavallo I Pagliacci, Berg Wozzeck, Britten The Turn of the Screw, Weinberg The Passenger and a new production of Weill Mahagonny. In his first two seasons at Israel, Stern championed two contemporary Israeli Operas, The Journey to the Millenium by Josef Bardanshvilli and The Child Dreams by Gil Shochat.  Past projects have also included Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in November 2010 and  Mozart’s Magic Flute in Summer 2011. In St Gallen his 2010/11 season started with a new production of Wozzeck and continued with revival performances of Madame Butterfly. The season opens with a revival of Manon.  Highlights of last seasons included performances of a new edition of Simone Mayr’s Medea in Corinto, directed by David Alden and a new staging of Madame Butterfly by Aaron Stil.

At the start of this season, Stern returns to the Vienna Chamber Orchestra for concerts in the Konzerthaus, Vienna and he makes his debut with the Ulster Orchestra, Ireland. This season also includes engagements with, Jeune Orchestre Atlantique, Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra, Magdeburger Telemann Festtage and Luzerner Sinfonieorchester. Last seasons highlights included the London Mozart Players for concerts in London and a tour in Germany. Stern also regularly conducts in Asia and in summer 2011, he made his debut with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra.
In 2003, Stern created Opera Fuoco, an ensemble that marks a new generation of period instrument groups approaching classical and baroque repertoire with renewed vigor. Last season, they  premiered JC Bach Zanaide at the Leipzig Bach Festival and will tour the concert version of this piece in Europe including a performance at the Cite de la Musique in 2011/12. The group now returns regularly to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Lucerne Festival, and the Theatre des Champs Elysees, Paris, as well as regularly touring France. In February 2010, Opera Fuoco revived their production of Don Giovanni, staged by Yoshi Oida, in the premiere season of the reopening of the Théatre Royal at Versailles. The production was filmed by Arte in 2009 and will be released on DVD. Their first CD recording, Handel’s Semele, featuring Paul Agnew and Danielle de Niese, was released in 2004 to critical acclaim, and their second, Jephtha, was released in 2006. In 2009, Opera Fuoco made a triumphant debut at the St. Gallen Festspiel, and will return for annual engagements. He has also created the Opera Fuoco Troupe, a vehicle for young singers to perfect their talents and develop their international careers.

Past appearances for Mr Stern include the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul, the New Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Orchestra, Boston, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and the Tivoli Festival, Copenhagen. He made his operatic debut in New York with a production of Britten’s Curlew River directed by Yoshi Oida, and in 2008 at Glimmerglass Festival with a highly acclaimed production of Giulio Cesare. He has conducted at the Opera de Lyon, ENO, Verdi and Massenet at the Hong Kong Opera, the Gurzenich Orchestra, Cologne, the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestra Nazionale de la RAI in Torino and the Prague Philharmonia Chamber Orchestra. He continues his long standing relationship with the Basel Chamber Orchestra with future projects planned in 2012.