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Nathalie Stutzmann
The French conductor has signed a new exclusive recording agreement with Erato
Erato has signed a new exclusive agreement with conductor Nathalie Stutzmann.
The first recording under this new agreement, due for release in August 2024, is a Dvořák album with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, featuring the Symphony No 9 ('From the New World') and American Suite.
When French-born Stutzmann began her tenure as the Atlanta Symphony's music director in 2022, she became only the second woman to serve as artistic leader of one of the USA's twenty-five top orchestras. French-born Stutzmann holds another major post in the USA: principal guest conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, which she conducted in her Carnegie Hall debut in May this year.
Nathalie Stutzmann.
Photo © 2024 Daniele Ratti
Her recent schedule of guest engagements have included concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Munich Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In May 2023, she made a 'double debut' at New York's Metropolitan Opera, conducting two operas in new productions. Shortly afterwards she made a similarly triumphant debut at the Bayreuth Festival, conducting Tannhäuser. She will return to Bayreuth this summer.
Nathalie Stutzmann first made her name as a contralto, launching a distinguished career in the mid-1980s. Some of her earliest recordings were for Erato, and she later returned to the label for three albums as both singer and conductor with Orfeo 55, the instrumental ensemble she founded in 2009 and directed for ten years: Heroes from the Shadows (2014), Quella Fiamma (2017) and Contralto (2021).
Stutzmann studied conducting with the legendary Finnish teacher Jorma Panula and was mentored by Simon Rattle and the late Seiji Ozawa.
Alain Lanceron, president of Warner Classics & Erato, says:
Nathalie Stutzmann has indeed entered a 'new world' as an artist in her evolution from singer to conductor. This Dvořák No 9 will stand as her first recording of a symphony, giving proof of her thrilling capacity for shedding fresh light on works of the core repertoire. Having followed Nathalie's career since its early days, I can say that her interpretations - in their strength, honesty, insight and affection - are very much an expression of the person I have come to know over the years.
Nathalie Stutzmann adds:
It is an immense joy and honour to join the legendary label Warner Classics and sign an exclusive contract as a conductor. I have a long and rich history of collaboration with this amazing group of people, who love the artists they work with and create a family atmosphere. They are led by Alain Lanceron whom I thank dearly for his support and truthfulness.
It is a dream come true to work with a team that understands and respects the necessity for an artist to have the artistic freedom to create a true musical world, and to record works of immense beauty with my favourite orchestras in the world. Music is an eternal source of emotion and must be shared with the world as the best form of spiritual communication with the unknown and the meaning of life.
Our first album is dedicated to Dvořák, with his 'New World' Symphony and American Suite, recorded live with the musicians of my Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. It is a lovely tribute to my amazing commitments across the Atlantic, but also to the new horizons opening up for our exciting collaboration.
Posted 28 June 2024 by Keith Bramich
