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Warwick Stengards





Following a four-year engagement as Assistent Generalmusikdirektor at the Volksoper Wien and a seven year tenure as Erster Kapellmeister at the Luzerner Theater, Warwick Stengårds is an Australian/Swedish freelance conductor based in Vienna.

In Europe and Australia, Stengårds has studied with such notable conductors as Peter Eötvös, Vittorio Parisi, Ronald Zollman, Robert Rosen and Vladimir Verbitsky.

In addition to an extensive symphonic canon, Stengårds has a music-theatre repertoire of over 100 works performing with companies such as Vienna State Opera, Volksoper Wien, Folkoperan Stockholm, Opera Australia, Victoria State Opera, Chamber Made Opera and West Australian Opera where, in 1991, he was appointed Music Director.

Operatic highlights include the world premieres of Koehne's Love Burns, Tahourdin's Heloise and Abelard, Ingham's Transfigured Night, Koukias' Mikrovian, Australian premieres of Turnage's Greek, Williamson's Our Man in Havana, Swiss premieres of Greek, Kraus’ Soliman II and Joplin’s Treemonisha and regional premieres of Wozzeck and The Rake's Progress. Stengårds is highly acclaimed for his interpretations of Mozart, Puccini and Verdi, in particular successful seasons of The Magic Flute and Madama Butterfly.
His performance of Rigoletto with West Australian Opera "had shattering intensity, both vivid and impressive" (The Australan).

Stengårds also has wide experience with choral groups. In addition to a four year term as Director of Queen's College Chapel Choir, he was Music Director of the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir for four years followed by a three year appointment with the University of Western Australia Choral Society. He has conducted the West Australian and Tasmanian Symphony Choruses, the undergraduate choirs at the Universities of Melbourne, Monash, Macquarie and Western Australia, the Ashton Smith Singers, the Newcastle University Choir, the Willoughby Symphony Choir and Harmonia Sacra.

In Europe, aside from the internationally acclaimed Johann Strauss Capelle and Schönbrunner Schlossorchester where he was appointed Chefdirigent in 2004, Stengårds has conducted the Ulster Orchestra in a series of concerts and recordings for the British Broadcasting Corporation, the SL Orkester, the Uppsala Kammarorkester, Klangforum Wien, the Wroclaw Philharmonic, the Rundfunk Sinfonie-Orchester Saarbrücken (featuring soloist Andreas Scholl), DalaSinfoniettan, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the European Doctors Orchestra and the Nürnberger Symphoniker.

Recent projects included:

Wozzeck (Gurlitt), L’Heure Espagnole, Ariane (Martinu), A Midsummernight’s Dream (Ballet - Mendelssohn), The Magic Flute, West Side Story, Barbara Strozzi (Gräwe - World Premiere) and various concerts for the Luzerner Theater. Tyranny of Distance with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Einstein Cantata with SonicFiction and concerts with the Luxemburg Philharmonie, an extensive tour to Romania with the Johann Strauss Ensemble (Linz) and a series of New Year’s Eve concerts with the Schönbrunner Schlossorchester. Performances with Orchestra Victoria, the Australian Doctors Orchestra and The Impossible Orchestra. Purcell’s Fairy Queen in South Africa for Cape Festival, the world premiere season of Naske’s Das Städtchen Drumherum at the Vienna State Opera, Fairy Queen in Berlin, Die Csardasfürstin in Leipzig, Die Fledermaus in Lüneburg, Bluebeard’s Castle in Melbourne, Macbeth for the Nagambie Opera Festival, concerts with the European Doctors Orchestra, Soundstream Collective, MUSIKFABRIK and a Scandinavian Tour with the Schönbrunner Schlossorchester.

Concerts with the Australian Philharmonic, Monash Academy, the Luxemburg Philharmonie, Klangforum Wien and the Malta Philharmonic are among future projects.

January 2017