Stéphane Denève is Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director of the New World Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. He previously served as Principal Guest Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Music Director of the Brussels Philharmonic, Chief Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.  

A graduate and prize-winner of the Paris Conservatoire, Denève worked closely in his early career with Sir Georg Solti, Georges Prêtre and Seiji Ozawa. Passionate about the future of the art-form and a gifted communicator, he is committed to inspiring the next generation of performers and listeners through commissioning, digital and new media initiatives and innovative approaches to concert presentation.  As an educator, he leads the orchestral performance programme at the New World Symphony, and his work with young people has also included visits to the Colburn School in Los Angeles, Tanglewood Music Center, the European Union Youth Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, the Curtis Institute and Music Academy of the West.    

Recent European engagements have included appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, DSO Berlin, Czech Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony at the BBC Proms, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra (with whom he was invited to conduct the 2020 Nobel Prize concert), Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Rotterdam Philharmonic.  

In North America, Stéphane Denève made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and subsequently conducted the annual gala with the Philadelphia Orchestra, John Williams and Yo-Yo Ma. He is a regular guest with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Atlanta Symphony and Toronto Symphony. In 2022, Denève was honoured with an invitation to lead the official 90th Birthday Gala for John Williams at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra.  He has also been a frequent visitor to many of the US summer music festivals, including the Hollywood Bowl, Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood, Blossom Music Festival, Bravo!Vail, Festival Napa Valley, Grand Teton Music Festival, Sun Valley Music Festival and Music Academy of the West. 

Elsewhere in recent years he has performed with the NHK Symphony, Sydney Symphony, New Zealand Symphony, São Paulo Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Saito Kinen Orchestra, with whom he was invited to conduct the 125th anniversary gala for Deutsche Grammophon at Suntory Hall alongside John Williams. 

Stéphane Denève frequently collaborates with many of the world’s leading solo artists, including Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Nicola Benedetti, Yefim Bronfman, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Sasha Cooke, James Ehnes, Kirill Gerstein, Hélène Grimaud, Augustin Hadelich, Hilary Hahn, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Leonidas Kavakos, Lang Lang, Olivier Latry, Isabel Leonard, Paul Lewis, Nikolai Lugansky, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Kelley O’Connor, Víkingur Ólafsson, Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Golda Schultz, Gil Shaham, Akiko Suwanai, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Davóne Tines and Frank Peter Zimmermann. He also treasures the memory of Nicholas Angelich and Lars Vogt, two exceptional artists with whom he enjoyed a close musical friendship over many years.  

In the field of opera, Stéphane Denève has led productions at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra National de Paris, Glyndebourne Festival, Teatro alla Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Netherlands Opera (including a new production of Pelléas et Mélisande with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for the Holland Festival), Saito Kinen Festival, Gran Teatre del Liceu, La Monnaie and Deutsche Oper am Rhein. 

As a recording artist, Denève has won critical acclaim for his discography – in particular the works of Poulenc, Debussy, Ravel, Roussel, Franck and Connesson. He is a triple winner of the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, has been shortlisted for Gramophone’s Artist of the Year Award, and has won the prize for symphonic music at the International Classical Music Awards. His latest release – Concerto for Orchestra, Silent Night Elegy & Virelai – was recorded with the St. Louis Symphony and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts. Other recent recording projects have included Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s Symposium and John Williams’ Violin Concerto No.1 with James Ehnes and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; a live recording of Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; an album of John Williams’ film music recorded for Deutsche Grammophon; and two discs of the works of Guillaume Connesson with the Brussels Philharmonic (the first of which was awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, Caecilia Award, and Classica Magazine’s CHOC of the Year). A box-set of his complete Ravel recordings with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra was released in 2022 by Hänssler Classic.  

Lucas & Arthur Jussen are among the most sought-after piano duos of our time. Given their brilliant international career, it is fair to say that the Jussen brothers (born in 1993 and 1996) are Holland’s best-known ambassadors for classical music. With their energetic, almost symbiotic playing, their great tonal sophistication and their gripping interpretations, they are enthusiastically acclaimed by press and audience alike. ‘It’s like driving two BMWs at the same time,’ said conductor Michael Schønwandt about the two pianists after a joint concert.

Engagements have taken them to leading orchestras such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. They have worked with many renowned conductors, including Christoph Eschenbach, Iván Fischer, Sir Neville Marriner, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nezét-Séguin and Jaap van Zweden.

Lucas & Arthur Jussen are Artists in Residence with the Frankfurt hr Symphony Orchestra for the 2025/2026 season. They will be featured in several programs as part of this residency. A particular highlight of the season is their eagerly awaited debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in February 2026. Further invitations will take them to the Danish National Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra, Philharmonia Zurich, Lahti Symphony and Orchestre National de France, among others. As soloists, they will also tour with the Munich Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. In the USA, they will make their debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and can be heard in several recitals, including in Prescott, La Jolla, Palm Springs and Kansas City. In April 2026, they will premiere Andrew Norman’s double concerto, composed especially for them, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Susanna Mälkki.

In Asia, the Jussen brothers will perform for the first time at the Tongyeong International Music Festival. They will then travel to Taiwan to give a concert with the Taiwan Philharmonic and play at the Weiwuying International Music Festival. Highlights in Europe include appearances at major festivals such as the Gstaad Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Enescu Festival and the Istanbul Music Festival. Together with percussionists Alexej Gerassimez and Emil Kuyumcuyan, they present a dynamic piano-percussion program in Hamburg, Hanover, Bremen, Cologne, Dresden, Amsterdam, Oslo, Budapest and Barcelona, at the Ruhr Piano Festival and the Prague Spring Festival. They can be heard in recital in Amsterdam, Arnhem, Ghent, Antwerp, Braunschweig, Leipzig, Marburg, Münster, Bielefeld, Wiesloch, Erlangen, Bern, Milan and Vilnius, among other places.

Lucas & Arthur Jussen have been signed to Deutsche Grammophon since 2010. Their debut recording of works by Beethoven went platinum and won the Edison Klassiek Audience Award. This was followed by a Schubert CD and the album Jeux featuring French piano music. In 2015, a recording of Mozart’s Concertos K242 and 365 with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner was released, achieving gold status. Further releases include Poulenc’s Double Concerto and Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals with the Concertgebouworkest under Stéphane Denève, as well as a Bach album with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. On The Russian Album (2021), they interpret works for two pianos by Rachmaninov, Stravinsky and Arensky. In their latest recording, Dutch Masters (April 2022), supported by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, among others, they devote themselves to works by Dutch composers. This recording was awarded an Edison Klassiek and the audience prize.

Lucas & Arthur Jussen received their first piano lessons in their hometown of Hilversum. Even as children, they performed before Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, and their first awards in competitions followed. In 2005, the two met Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires, who mentored them for years. Lucas later studied with Menahem Pressler in the United States and Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid, while Arthur completed his studies with Jan Wijn at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.