Stefano Flavoni is a conductor currently serving as Assistant Conductor (Musikalische Assistenz) of Staatsoper Hamburg and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg. He has also served the same role this season with the Bayerische Staatsoper, leading the rehearsal process for a new production of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre. He has worked as a cover and assistant conductor for a variety of American ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and American Modern Opera Company.
Flavoni has been described by harpsichordist Davitt Moroney as someone who “digests all new sounds he has heard and turns them into something different, something that is uniquely Stefano Flavoni and is stamped by a kind of hallmark of musical intensity.” Flavoni was recently selected by the Solti Foundation as a 2023 recipient of the prestigious career advancement award for young conductors.
He has been mentored by several luminaries of classical music, including Kent Nagano, Manfred Honeck, and James Levine, and has assisted such notable conductors as Gustavo Dudamel, Herbert Blomstedt, and Michael Tilson Thomas.
In the field of opera, his upcoming season with Staatsoper Hamburg includes productions of Tristan und Isolde, Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos, Boris Godunov, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Der fliegende Holländer, and several world premieres.
A sought-out vocal coach, the vast number of singers he has coached includes Davóne Tines, Julia Bullock, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Felicia Moore, Brandie Sutton, Errin Duane Brooks, and many more. An accomplished pianist, Stefano Flavoni has performed in recital with notable soloists as Grammy-winner Dashon Burton, Metropolitan Opera tenor David Portillo, and jazz vocalist Paula West.
He has made strides in the field of contemporary music, including having served as Music Director of the critically-acclaimed Abraham in Flames, a 2019 opera by Niloufar Talebi and Aleksandra Vrebalov featuring the Young Women’s Choral Project of San Francisco and alumni of the San Francisco Opera Merola Program. He also recently served as assistant conductor on a new production of John Adams’ El Niño with the American Modern Opera Company, featuring the Trinity Wall Street chorus and musicians of the Metropolitan Opera orchestra.
Stefano has had the pleasure of participating in masterclasses with some of the world's top artists, including Sir Simon Rattle, Pierre-Andre Valade, and Larry Rachleff.
An ardent advocate for inspiring music performance in the younger generations, Stefano is currently the Music Director of the San Francisco Arts Education Project, for which he has introduced high-level music training to hundreds of students of the San Francisco Bay Area. He has served on the faculty of San Francisco Conservatory of Music as Music Director of Pre-College Opera and Musical Theatre. Flavoni also formerly served as a research fellow in music and philosophy at the Zephyr Institute at Stanford University. He has also spoken on the topics of music, politics, and social justice in the 4D Mentor Talk Series with the Khadem Foundation. His conversations with several notable musicians can be heard on Spotify and Apple Music in the podcast What’s Not There.
He attended the University of California, Berkeley as a Regents and Chancellor's Scholar on full academic scholarship, studying conducting under David Milnes and Marika Kuzma, composition under Franck Bedrossian, and musicology under Richard Taruskin. While at Berkeley, he served as music director of the UC Berkeley Opera Ensemble, performing numerous scenes concerts, as well as a production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, which won the 2015 Eisner Prize in the Arts.
Stefano is a diehard fan of the New York Yankees, New York Knicks, and AS Roma. In his free time, he writes poetry that is occasionally not terrible, plays chess at an adequate amateur level, and records jazz covers of 90s/early 2000s hip hop classics. He also has an embarrassing amount of esoteric Star Wars lore committed to memory.