About

A fresh approach, always

To Jonathan, there can be surprising little difference between making the classical or the contemporary repertoire come to life. If needed, he devises new ways to rehearse and perform, bringing a total understanding to all parties involved, making them owner of the music and transfer that directly to the audience. His expertise treats the notation as a way to make the music sound ‘like it should’ – a focus on the chain between idea and realization, which applies to Mozart as it does to music of the now.

The critical response to this wide offering is often remarkably in unison. The Berliner Zeitung wrote “Stockhammer inspired the orchestra in Mahler’s Seventh Symphony to extraordinary virtuosity. Music of a presence that made the question of the future seem indifferent”. The New York Times said about the opera Powder Her Face by Thomas Adès: “Stockhammer supervised a vibrant, exacting account of this complex, haunting work. At the end the ovations were long and loud.”

Promising beginnings

Born in Los Angeles in 1969, Jonathan studied composition with Ian Krouse and Stephen Hartke, and conducting with Daniel Lewis. Still a student, he had the opportunity to fill in for a series of concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and was subsequently mentored by chief conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. He later moved to Germany, where he studied with and became the assistant of conductor/composer Peter Eötvös. These early experiences made enduring impressions.

Powerful collaborations

Since the late 1990s Jonathan has worked closely with cutting-edge collectives such as Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Resonanz, Klangforum Wien and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, who welcome his initiatives. Jonathan has conducted leading international orchestras including the Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, NDR Symphony Hamburg, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Philharmonia, the Seoul Philharmonic and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared at the festivals of Salzburg, Lucerne, Schwetzingen, Donaueschingen, by the Biennale Venice, the Wiener Festwochen and Wien Modern.

Jonathan’s keen interest in interdisciplinary productions and his ability to cross-reference on a wide scale has led to surprising collaborations and gained him the trust of many creative leaders in theater, music and dance. He frequently returns to Opernhaus Zürich, Ensemble Modern, Staatsballett Berlin, Theater Basel/Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Dresdner Philharmonie, Essener Philharmoniker, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.

Music takes many forms

A selection of the operas conducted by Jonathan: Zemlinsky Eine florentinische Tragödie and Ravel L’Heure Espagnole (Opéra de Lyon), Wolfgang Rihm Proserpina and the lyric work Deus Passus (with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra), Thomas Adès Powder Her Face (New York City Opera), Philip Glass Satyagraha (Theater Basel/Komische Oper Berlin) and Luigi Nono Al gran sole carico d’amore (Theater Basel).

Jonathan relishes music that blurs the boundaries between classical music, rock, pop, and hip-hop. His CD Greggery Peccary & Other Persuasions with Ensemble Modern, featuring works by Frank Zappa, won an Echo Klassik Award. He also recorded a new soundtrack to Sergei Eisensteins’s 1925 film The Battleship Potemkin, composed and performed by the Pet Shop Boys. His live recording of The New Crystal Silence with Chick Corea, Gary Burton and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra won a Grammy in 2009. His collaboration with spoken word artist Saul Williams on Said the Shotgun to the Head, featuring music composed by Thomas Kessler, has also been particularly successful. To date, he has conducted the work with the WDR Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Oslo Philharmonic.

This season

In the 2022/23 season Jonathan makes his debuts with the Bremen Philharmonic, the Opera Vlaanderen (Glass Satyagraha), Oper Frankfurt (Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen) and Staatsballett Berlin (Tchaikovsky Eugen Onegin). Further highlights include a variety of new projects with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, many of them incorporating new formats and adding programme design to the musical direction.