Jonathan
Stockhammer

“I love music passionately. And because I love it I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it.”
— Claude Debussy

Conductor Jonathan Stockhammer’s approach to music resembles a prism: a single idea leads him to many different forms of collaboration and music-making. His multifaceted repertoire and astonishing range of projects emanate from a deeply held conviction that great music cannot and should not be limited to any particular category or box.

A charismatic communicator, Jonathan applies his interpretational and theatrical sensibilities to both well-known, beloved repertoire as well as to overlooked masterworks of the past. Composers of today respect him as an experienced, flexible and astute partner in bringing their new works to life. On stage he forges strong bonds between performers and audiences. In rehearsal and performance alike, Jonathan has a gift for creating a community of the moment and for the moment.

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Watch + Listen

Debussy – La Mer

First movement De l’aube à midi sur la mer of Claude Debussy’s La Mer with the London Symphony Orchestra recorded live in concert at the Barbican in London on 20 April 2023.
“Working with an impressionistic musical canvas revealed Stockhammer’s adaptability as a conductor, as he revelled in Debussy’s masterly use of instrumental textures. There was a real sense of nature awakening.” – Opera and Classical Music Reviews

Dvorak – Symphony No. 9

A taste from the Twitch TV interactive livestreaming concert featuring Jonathan Stockhammer conducting the Konzerthausorchester Berlin in Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”.

Nono – Al gran sole carico d’amore

Introduction (in German) to Luigi Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore. Jonathan Stockhammer conducted the Sinfonieorchester Basel at Theater Basel in 2019. “He accomplishes the remarkable feat of bringing forth a broad range of tones from a large apparatus.” – Neue Zürcher Zeitung

Fujikura – Recorder Concerto

Jonathan Stockhammer, soloist Jeremias Schwarzer and the Bamberg Symphony dedicated themselves to the diversity of the recorder with works by the Japanese composer Dai Fujikura in 2021.

Zappa – Peaches En Regalia

In 2020, Jonathan Stockhammer conducted Ensemble Modern in Peaches En Regalia and other works by Frank Zappa. Performed in the Main Hall of the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg.

Listen also to their CD recording from 2003.

“Jonathan Stockhammer conducting the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin is a passionate musician who knows something about control as a path to ecstasy.”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about “glut” and other orchestral works by Dieter Ammann

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