Berlioz, Ortiz, and Barber

Michael Stern (Conducting ’86) is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, studying under the noted conductor and scholar Max Rudolf. Stern co-edited the third edition of Rudolf’s famous textbook, The Grammar of Conducting, and also edited a volume of Rudolf’s collected writings and correspondence. He is also a graduate of Harvard University, where he earned a degree in American history.

Benoit Gauthier is a Canadian conductor acclaimed for the intensity and depth of his interpretations. In 2024, he received the prestigious Jean-Marie-Beaudet Prize in Conducting from the Canada Council for the Arts.

He recently made his New York debut at David Geffen Hall (Lincoln Center), where Phindie wrote: “Gauthier clearly had a sense of the weight of the material, and had the requisite authority to guide the Curtis orchestra into carrying that weight” (2024). He has also conducted the National Arts Centre Orchestra (2025), the Quebec Symphony Orchestra (2024), and the Laval Symphony Orchestra (2023 and 2025), and is scheduled to make upcoming debuts with the Windsor Symphony, the Thunder Bay Symphony, and Orchestre de l’Agora.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he served as a Conducting Fellow, Gauthier refined his craft under world-renowned mentors including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Ford Mylius Lallerstedt, Jim Ross, Robert Spano, Michael Stern, Noah Bendix-Balgley, and Yuja Wang. His exceptional artistry and communicative presence—recognized by both colleagues and faculty—led to his appointment to the Conducting Faculty at Curtis in a newly created position designed specifically for him.

He previously studied flute with Jacinthe Forand and conducting with Gilles Auger at the Conservatoire de musique de Québec, and took part in masterclasses with Alexander Shelley, Marin Alsop, and Bramwell Tovey. From 2021 to 2024, he was a member of the inaugural Conducting Academy of the Orchestre Métropolitain, under the mentorship of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

In recent seasons, Gauthier has conducted the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and the Berlin Opera Academy Orchestra, and has served as assistant to conductors JoAnn Falletta, Victorien Vanoosten, Carlos Spierer, and Andreas Ottensamer.

Committed to community engagement, Gauthier founded the Orchestre symphonique de la Côte-Nord (OSCN) at the age of sixteen, in the only region of Québec that had no professional orchestra at the time. Now a recognized institution, the OSCN performs major symphonic works (The Rite of Spring, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, and a Beethoven cycle from 2023 to 2025) and creates tours adapted to the vast geography of the region (Affluence with the Orchestre du Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean in 2022, Un vent de renouveau in 2023).

In April 2025, he conducted the premiere of Alexis Vollant’s Requiem de guérison—a moving work for soloists, choir, and orchestra dedicated to the memory of Indigenous children who perished in residential schools—performed in collaboration with the OSCN. A chamber-orchestra version of the work will tour Québec’s North Shore in May 2026. Deeply invested in contemporary creation, Gauthier has commissioned and premiered works with the OSCN such as Nordicité (2022) by Martin Caron, dans la tourbière, je m’allongerai sur la mousse (2025) by Charles-Vincent Lemelin, and the Symphonic Suite on Cyrano de Bergerac (2023) by Simon Desbiens.

A versatile musician, he is also a pianist and passionate vocal accompanist, having studied with Miloš Repický, Wolfgang Holzmair, Christine Brewer, François Le Roux, Olivier Godin, and Jennifer Larmore. These experiences led him to assist in opera productions such as George Lewis’s The Comet/Poppea and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen with the Curtis Opera Theatre (2024), and Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi with the Berlin Opera Academy (2022).

Gauthier received the 2023 Emerging Artist Award from Culture Côte-Nord and has been supported by grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the AIDA Fund, and the Jeunesses Musicales Canada Foundation, as a conductor, flutist, and composer. In 2025, he was also named among CBC’s “30 Classical Musicians Under 30 to Watch.”

benoitgauthierchef.com

Acclaimed for its “otherworldly ensemble and professional level of sophistication” (New York Times), the Curtis Symphony Orchestra offers a dynamic showcase of tomorrow’s exceptional young talent. Each year the 100 extraordinary musicians of the orchestra work with internationally renowned conductors, including Osmo Vänskä, Vladimir Jurowski, Marin Alsop, Simon Rattle, Robert Spano, and Yannick Nézet Séguin, who also mentors the early-career conductors who hold Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellowships. This professional training has enabled Curtis alumni to assume prominent positions in America’s leading orchestras, as well as esteemed orchestral, opera, and chamber ensembles around the world.