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Under Childress’s baton, the narrative of one of the most beautiful pages of the Romantic symphonic repertoire unfolded with great precision. The orchestra’s musicians gave their all, shaping a first movement steeped in tense turmoil, which seemed to herald the dazzling vivacity of the Scherzo, where the string section shone brightly… In short, a finely crafted Schumann—born from the complete understanding between conductor and orchestra.

At the centre was Stephanie Childress, whose controlled power and luminous musicianship shaped the entire evening. She drew warmth from Tchaikovsky’s melodies, navigated Prokofiev’s jagged rhythms with crystalline precision, and approached Hailstork’s score with insight and sensitivity.

In the curtain raiser, Tchaikovsky’s 23-minute “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture,” Childress proved all business—and then some—while at the same time, she was able to coax sumptuous sounds from the Phil….
After intermission, Childress offered a vibrant, 35-minute rendering of Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet” Suite No. 2. Op. 64, bursting out of the gate with the über-popular “Dance of the Knights.”

Franco-British conductor Stephanie Childress, who debuted with the Orchestra in 2024, returned Saturday to a warm welcome at the Blossom Music Center. From her slight frame and controlled gestures came a striking reserve of power. Whether with baton or without, her long, expressive fingers eloquently shaped phrases with precision and grace throughout the evening….

Childress embraced Mendelssohn’s vision unreservedly, delivering it with a youthful exuberance that sent the Blossom audience home smiling.

Notable for her classical poise…Her movements were compact and focused, completely geared to getting the job done.

The crystalline direction of the young British conductor Stephanie Childress (2nd Prize, La Maestra Competition 2020) shapes the surges and breaks of the first movement, the rebounds and syncopations of the Scherzo, and the dance-like spirit of the Allegro animato e grazioso.

A powerful conclusion to a concert that reaffirmed Stephanie Childress’ growing reputation – one well-earned, concert after concert, from the conductor’s podium.

Stephanie Childress conducts an all-British programme of Vaughan Williams, Britten and Elgar which delights Berliners.
In Vaughan Williams’ Concerto Grosso, Childress coaxed opulent string tone from her players, resulting in a luxurious sound from start to finish …
Elgar’s Enigma Variations - Childress and her musicians caught the unique character of each to perfection, the sound warm, and sepulchral where required …the melodic lines and that rousing climax were beautifully realised by Childress and the orchestra, who went on to pull out all the stops in the rousing, climactic final variation.

A highly focused conducting style…a masterful conductor with a distinctive beat.

Stephanie Childress conducts the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg with vitality, lightness, and precision... Every phrase forms a graceful arc; every note has exactly the right weight. At the premiere of Die Entführung aus dem Serail in 1782, Mozart himself was only 26—just two years older than Childress. At times, it almost seems as if Mozart himself were conducting…

Here was a performance full of finely blended orchestral colours, Childress helping sculpt the sound with palpable affection and encouragement.

The Detroit Opera Orchestra led by the brilliant Stephanie Childress, who is making her Detroit Opera conducting debut, played Mazzoli’s complex score with subtlety and finesse.

A sumptuous, challenging score, conducted with precision by Stephanie Childress and rendered impeccably by the Detroit Opera orchestra.

Conductor Stephanie Childress powerfully leads a particularly game Detroit Opera Orchestra through some extensively powerful, surprising and thoughtful moments in acts two and three.

It’s in the pit where this Don Giovanni is given exceptional life, with Stephanie Childress directing the Glyndebourne Sinfonia and revealing herself to be a Mozartian to her fingertips. She illuminates felicitous detail with well-judged pacing and a fine ear for balance.

In the pit, Stephanie Childress conducted with consummate professionalism, seemingly as one with the Glyndebourne Sinfonia and her knowledge and passion for Mozart is clearly substantive, coaxing precision and meticulousness from her orchestra.

All are fired up to white heat in a well-played performance of irresistible, headlong energy from Stephanie Childress and the Glyndebourne Sinfonia.

Stephanie Childress conducted with energy and panache...

Her focus and poise resulted in a performance of lithe vitality, detailed and assured.

The concert closed with a dynamic and nuanced Dvořák Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World"). Conducting without a score, Childress delivered a Ninth that, for sheer brilliance, belongs up there with the SLSOs last performance in 2017 with David Robertson.

Childress, conducting from memory, kept her tempos perky and her directions vivid, powerful and energetic. Longer-than-usual pauses between movements allowed the mood of one to make way for the next.

With moods ranging from romantic yearning to tragic nobility, it calls for players with a wide expressive range and a conductor who is sensitive to both the work’s technical demands and its emotional depth. Ms. Childress and the SLSO strings were all of that in abundance.

Her podium style was elegant and precise, neither flamboyant nor overly reserved.

Childress made sure there was plenty of freshness, light and delicacy, the epitome of Gallic elegance.

Childress’ elegant self-possession on the podium was reflected in interpretations that bore the stamp of a symphonic mind and consistently favoured musical honesty over sonic effect.
Childress’ close attention to music’s shifting moods and her view of the orchestra as a single instrument should make her an ideal interpreter of the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, a composer whose compositions are built from slow textural transfigurations, and so it proved in her rapt account of Lumière et Pesanteur, a six-minute traversal of the Stations of the Cross whose instrumental trills are as gentle as a slight vibrato and where long, meditative phrases are spiked by calm interjections from a solo harp and piccolo.

The most recent concert presented a mostly Finnish programme, originally intended for Susanna Malkki, but conducted in the event, and with full engagement, by Stephanie Childress. The novelties here were headed by Kaija Saariaho’s Lumiere et Pesanteur, a brief glimpse into a hypersensitive sound-world, where lights flicker in the finest of mists, the subtlety of the music not even compromised by substantial parts for trumpet and other brass.