CONDUCTORS

MICHAEL STERN, Music Director

Conductor Michael Stern is Music Director of the Kansas City Symphony, Founding Artistic Director, and Principal Conductor of the Iris Orchestra and recently named Music Director of the Stamford Symphony in Connecticut and The National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Michael Stern and Kansas City have been hailed for their remarkable artistic ascent, original programming, organizational development and stability, and the extraordinary growth of its varied audiences since his tenure began. Stern and the orchestra have partnered with Grammy® Award-winning Reference Recordings for a series of very well-received CDs, including a new recording of works by American composer Adam Schoenberg, Gustav Holst’s “The Planets,” and albums of Elgar, Sibelius, and Saint-Saens.

Iris Orchestra in Germantown, Tennessee is known for the virtuosity of its playing, and the depth and variety of its programming, with special emphasis on American contemporary music. Under Stern’s direction, IRIS has commissioned and premiered works by William Bolcom, Chris Brubeck, Richard Danielpour, Stephen Hartke, Edgar Meyer, Jonathan Leshnoff, Ned Rorem, Huang Ruo, amongst others, and has released recordings on the Naxos and Arabesque labels.

Recent guest engagements have included the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia, the Atlanta Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic in the film score to The Red Violin with Joshua Bell as soloist; also, with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Ravinia, and the Napa Valley Festival del Sole, as well as concerts at the Stern Violin Competition in Shanghai.

Annually he conducts the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra as part of the Youth Music Culture Guangdong with Yo-Yo Ma and regularly appears at the Aspen Music Festival and School.

He has led the major orchestras in London, Stockholm, Paris, Helsinki, Budapest, Israel, and Moscow, Taiwan, and Tokyo, et al. Stern has been Chief Conductor of Germany’s Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra (the first American chief conductor in the orchestra’s history), Permanent Guest Conductor of the Orchestre National de Lyon in France, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre National de Lille, France.

Stern is the third Music Director in the NRO’s 61-year history.

CARL TOPILOW, Music Advisor

Through his more than four decades as the NRO’s Music Director and Conductor, Carl Topilow has influenced and nurtured countless young musicians and aspiring conductors. In his new role as Music Advisor, he is remaining active with the organization, and is looking forward to his work with Music Director Michael Stern and to the orchestra returning once again to the stage of the Riverwalk Center!

Topilow is the founding Conductor of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, and Music Director and Conductor of the Firelands Symphony Orchestra in Sandusky, Ohio. Past positions have included Conductor and Director of the Orchestral Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Principal Pops Conductor with the Toledo Symphony, Southwest Florida Symphony and Mansfield Symphony. He has served as Guest Conductor for 125 different orchestras in 37 states and 12 foreign countries, invariably finding NRO alumni wherever his travels take him.

Carl’s new book, The Orchestral Conductor’s Career Handbook and published by Rowman and Littlefield, is now available. Containing abundant references to his work with the NRO, it has been endorsed by past NRO Guest Gonductors Leonard Slatkin, JoAnn Falletta, Gerard Schwarz, Giancarlo Guerrero, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and others.

Topilow’s wife Shirley is the President and CEO of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra. Their daughter Jenny, an NRO alumna from the 2001 and 2003 seasons, is a violinist with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. Their daughter Emily is working in marketing, pursuing a master’s degree in communications, and performs as violinist with a local community orchestra. Carl’s hobbies include reading, foreign languages, travel, golf, spectator sports, and especially enjoys his time with his two grandchildren, Edie and Arlo.

Topilow is very proud of the accomplishments of his Assistant Conductors. The orchestras with which they have held or hold positions include the Annapolis Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Binghamton (NY) Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, Columbus (OH) Symphony, Evansville Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Illinois Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Limoges (France) Opera, Louisville Orchestra, Naples Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony, Quad Cities Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Santa Fe Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Springfield (MA) Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, Symphony in C, Symphony of Southeast Texas, Thunder Bay Symphony, and Toledo Symphony.

JASON SEBER

Jason Seber is the David T. Beals III Assistant Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony. He is celebrating his fifth year with the Kansas City Symphony, beginning as Assistant Conductor in the 2016-17 season, and as Associate Conductor starting in the 2017-18 season. In this position he has built a strong rapport with the Kansas City community, leading the Symphony in over 70 concerts each season on the Classics Uncorked, Pops, Family, Film + Live Orchestra, Young People’s Concerts, KinderKonzerts, and Link Up series, as well as Christmas Festival, Symphony in the Flint Hills, and many other programs. In October 2019, he made his debut on the Classical Series and recently led another Classical Series program in the spring of 2021. He also serves as a co-host for the Symphony’s podcast, “Beethoven Walks into a Bar.”

Prior to his appointment with the Kansas City Symphony, Seber served as Education and Outreach Conductor of the Louisville Orchestra from 2013 to 2016 and Music Director of the Louisville Youth Orchestra from 2005 to 2016. He has also served as Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra and the National Repertory Orchestra. Seber has guest conducted many leading North American orchestras, including the Charleston Symphony, Cleveland Pops, Colorado Symphony, Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, National Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and the Windsor Symphony.

A passionate advocate of music education, Seber conducted the 2019 National Repertory Orchestra at concerts in Breckenridge and as part of the Bravo! Vail Music Festival. He returns to lead the NRO in July 2021. He has led the Honors Performance Series Orchestra in performances at Royal Festival Hall in London (2019), Carnegie Hall (2018), and the Sydney Opera House (2017). In November 2019 he led the APAC Honors Festival Orchestra in Seoul, South Korea. He served as the Missouri All-State Orchestra Conductor in 2020 and will be the Pennsylvania All-State Conductor in 2022.

Seber has performed with classical artists Jinjoo Cho, Paul Jacobs, Conrad Tao, and Joyce Yang, and a diverse range of pops artists including Patti Austin, Andrew Bird, Boyz II Men, Melissa Etheridge, Ben Folds, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Lyle Lovett, Brian Stokes Mitchell, My Morning Jacket, Leslie Odom, Jr., Aoife O’Donovan, Pink Martini, Doc Severinsen, Bobby Watson, and Wynonna. He earned his master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Cleveland Institute of Music and his bachelor’s degrees in violin performance and music education from Baldwin Wallace University.