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Biography
Stephen Gunzenhauser has been Conductor and Music Director of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra in Lancaster, PA since 1979. In May, 2005 he celebrated his twenty-fifth anniversary with the orchestra at the conclusion of the 2004-2005 season. He also recently completed 23 years as the Music Director of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra in Wilmington, Delaware.
Dr. Gunzenhauser enjoys conducting in foreign venues. He has sharpened his skills while conducting in Europe, Canada, South America, the British Isles, Korea, Hong Kong, and Israel. Personal favorites have included the National Orchestra of Argentina and the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, where he has conducted the Mayors’ concert on the day after Christmas for five years.
The Maestro is the fifth most recorded American conductor. His recordings have sold over two million copies; his compact disc of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” has sold more than 800,000 copies. He has recorded 66 compact discs for Naxos, HNH International Music Company, Angel, Pro Arte Records, Elan, and Albany Records. He has recorded works by Beethoven, Saint-Saëns, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Bruch, Orff, Borodin, Dvořák, Rachmaninov, Schumann, Copland, Mozart, Vivaldi, Glière, and Lachner. In August, 2001 Gunzenhauser completed a recording of Benjamin Lee’s Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, and 5 with the State Philharmonic of Rheinland-Pfalz. That recording was nominated for a Grammy in 2003.
This past June, he was conductor of a new virtuoso chamber orchestra called "Pro Musicis". They recorded "The Seasons" of Antonio Vivaldi with Harrisburg Symphony Concertmaster Odin Rathnam, for West Branch Records. In September, 2001 the Maestro was selected as the American Judge at an International Conducting Competition in Lisbon, Portugal. Also selected were judges from Asia, Europe, and Russia. The coming season will see Dr. Gunzenhauser as an international judge and conductor at competitions in Sicily and Kazakhstan.
Born in New York City and a graduate of the High School of Music and Art in New York City, Dr. Gunzenhauser received a Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College and a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory. He also holds an Honorary Doctorate degree from Widener University. He has been awarded three Fulbright grants and has an Artist’s Diploma from the Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria. He was awarded Delaware’s First Cultural Ambassador designation in 1990 and is the recipient of the University of Delaware’s Medal of Distinction. He was also awarded the Order of the First State – the highest acknowledgement that a civilian may receive – from the State of Delaware.
During the 2003 – 2004 season, the Maestro conducted at the Teatro Colón (one of the five most beautiful concert halls in the world) with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra, and with the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra of Colombia, South America. In the 2004 – 2005 season he returned to Bogotá. In January, 2005 he conducted concerts in Germany, as well as a full-scale production of Puccini’s Tosca at the Wittgenstein Theater near Dresden. In August, 2005 he performed at a Hungarian Music Festival sponsored by the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra. His schedule for the 2005 – 2006 season included concerts in Bogotá, and a major “live” broadcast concert throughout Hungary from the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest of the Hungarian première of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony. The 2006 – 2007 season included concerts in Israel and Bogotá.
In August, 2006 Maestro Gunzenhauser presented the inaugural season of the first International Music Festival in Pennsylvania, the Endless Mountain Music Festival, which presented seven concerts in eight days. In 2007, the Festival expanded to give 15 concerts in 17 days. The festival continues to expand and grow in significance as the only international music festival in the state of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Gunzenhauser enjoys competitive tennis, golf and gourmet cooking. He resides in Avondale, PA with his wife Shelly. Both of their daughters are grown and live in Los Angeles, CA.
