Markus Stenz has held several high-profile positions including Principal Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (2012–2019), Principal Guest of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (2015–2019) and Conductor-In-Residence of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (2016–2021). He was General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister for 11 years, conducting Mozart's Don Giovanni, Wagner’s Ring cycle, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, as well as Janáček's Jenůfa and Katya Kábanová and Eötvös’s Love and other Demons.

He made his opera debut in 1988 at Teatro La Fenice in Venice. After a recent and highly successful Mozart and Strauss concert, he returned last season to conduct two concert weeks with repertoire including Mozart, Schumann, and Wagner and will return this season and beyond for productions of Wagner's Der fliegende Holländer and Berg's Wozzeck.

In 2018 Stenz conducted Schreker's Die Gezeichneten at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich and was due to return in 2021 for Fidelio before it was cancelled due to the pandemic. 2018 also saw the long-awaited world premiere of Kurtág's Fin de partie at Teatro alla Scala Milan (where he also had a great success conducting Strauss's Elektra) followed by performances of the Kurtág for Dutch National Opera and most recently its French premiere at Opéra National de Paris.

After a recent appearance at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Britten’s Death in Venice, Stenz returned last season to conduct Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and this season will conduct Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann.

The 2022–2023 season also sees Stenz’s debut with the Orchestra dell’Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He is delighted to return to the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra as well as to three orchestras where he previously held positions: Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra; Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln. Elsewhere in Europe he will conduct a Wagner evening with Nina Stemme in Budapest, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra at Linz Brucknerfest, and the Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe. In the US he makes his debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and returns to the Oregon Symphony and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.  

Further ahead he looks forward to returning to Orchestre National de Lyon and Dutch National Opera. Following a very successful debut with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Mahler Symphony No. 2 in 2022, he will return to the CBSO in the 2023-2024 season.

Stenz's most recent CD release was Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. Other recent highlights include concerts with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dortmund and Luxembourg philharmonic orchestras, Orchestre National de Lyon, Bergen Philharmonic, and Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. 

While with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Stenz received the prize for ‘The Best Concert Programme of the 2003–2004 Season’ as well as initiating a number of youth and educational projects such as “Experiment Klassik,” “3. Akt,” and the concert live-recording project “GO live.”

Named by The Economist as one of Twenty Living Polymaths, Sir Stephen Hough combines a distinguished career as a pianist with those of composer and writer. He was the first classical performer to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year Honours 2014, and was awarded a Knighthood for Services to Music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022.

In the 2022–2023 season, Hough performs more than 90 concerts across five continents. Concerto highlights include returns to the Concertgebouworkest, Detroit, Cincinnati, and Washington’s National symphony orchestras, BBC Symphony and Philharmonia orchestras, and the National Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan. 2023 Artist in Residence with Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Hough performs the complete Rachmaninoff concertos in Brazil as well as in Australia with the Sydney and Adelaide symphony orchestras. He is also Artist in Association with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, with whom he tours the UK in Spring 2023. Recent highlights include the New York Philharmonic, Dallas and Atlanta symphony orchestras, Singapore and Finnish Radio symphony orchestras, Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre National de France, London Philharmonic, and City of Birmingham symphony orchestras.

Hough is a regular guest at festivals such as Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, Edinburgh, La Roque-d’Anthéron, Aldeburgh, and the BBC Proms, where he has made 29 appearances. Recent recitals include Wigmore Hall (the UK’s first live classical music concert in a major venue following the 2020 nationwide pandemic lockdown), Royal Festival Hall, Caramoor, Toronto, Tallinn, Gstaad, and Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, while 2022–2023 highlights include New York (The 92nd Street Y), Paris, Sydney, Atlanta, and Sage Gateshead. 

Hough’s extensive discography of around 70 CDs has garnered international awards including the Diapason d’Or de l​’Année, several Grammy nominations, and eight Gramophone Awards including Record of the Year and the Gold Disc. Recent releases for Hyperion include Beethoven’s complete piano concertos (Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/​Hannu Lintu), ​’The Final Piano Pieces’ of Brahms, Chopin’s Nocturnes, a Schumann recital, Schubert Piano Sonatas, and Elgar’s Violin Sonata with Renaud Capuçon for Warner Classics. His recording of Mompou’s Música callada is released in 2023 (Hyperion). His award-winning iPad app, The Liszt Sonata, was released by Touch Press in 2013.

As a composer, Hough’s song cycle Songs of Love and Loss, co-commissioned by Wigmore Hall, The 92nd Street Y, New York, and Tippet Rise in Montana, receives its world premiere in January 2023. He wrote the commissioned work for the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, performed by all 30 competitors, and his String Quartet No.1 Les Six Rencontres, commissioned for the Takács Quartet, received its world premiere in Costa Mesa, California in 2021, and was recorded for Hyperion Records, due for release in January 2023. Hough has also been commissioned by Musée du Louvre, London​’s National Gallery, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, the Genesis Foundation, Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi, and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. His music is published by Josef Weinberger Ltd.

As an author, Hough’s memoir Enough: Scenes from Childhood is published by Faber & Faber in Spring 2023. It follows his collection of essays Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More (Faber & Faber, 2019)—a 2020 Royal Philharmonic Society Award winner and one of Financial Times’ Book of the Year 2019—as well as his first novel, The Final Retreat (Sylph Editions, 2018). He has also been published by The New York Times, The Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian, and the Evening Standard. Hough is an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple, an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society, a Visiting Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, a Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, the International Chair of Piano Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music (of which he was made a Companion in 2019), and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School in New York.