“Eckart Preu is one of the most impressive talents in the group of younger conductors working today in America. He is deeply musical, he cares about orchestras, and he conducts with elegance, style, and intensity.”
Henry Fogel
League of American Orchestras
“It’s a certain type of energy that he has. He’s just ready to soak in the world.”
Erica Kiesewetter
Concertmaster, Stamford Symphony
“I hate very stuffy, formal atmospheres. When I go to a concert, I want to have fun and feel good.”
Eckart Preu
Eckart Preu was named Music Director of the Stamford Symphony in 2005. He is also Music Director of the Spokane Symphony.
He was previously Associate Conductor of the Richmond Symphony and Resident Conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra and of the American Russian Young Artists Orchestra. His other former posts include Music Director of the Norwalk (CT) Youth Symphony and Principal Conductor of the New Amsterdam Symphony (NY). He was associated with the Bard Music Festival from 1997 to 2004 as both Assistant and Guest Conductor.
Eckart Preu served as Music Director of the Orchestre International de Paris from 1993-1995. He has appeared as a guest conductor with the Jerusalem Symphony, Radio Philharmonic of Slovenia, Hungary’s Pecs Philharmonic, Bulgaria’s Varna Philharmonic, and Germany’s Jenaer Philharmoniker, Hallesche Philharmonic, Thüringer Kammerorchester, and Landessinfonieorchester Gotha.
Career highlights include two Carnegie Hall performances, a performance at the Sorbonne in Paris, and a live broadcast with the Jerusalem Symphony in 2005. He also conducted the Stamford Symphony in the world and New York premieres of Clarinet Concerto no. 4 by William Thomas McKinley, with soloist Richard Stoltzman. He has worked with internationally renowned soloists including Sarah Chang, Anne Akiko Meyers, Jean-Philippe Collard, Vladimir Feltsman, Horacio Gutierrez, Leila Josefowicz, and Louis Lortie.
A native of Germany, Eckart Preu received early musical training in piano and voice. At 10, he joined the Boys Choir Dresdner Kreuzchor, and went on to become a soloist, rehearsal pianist, and the choir’s Assistant Conductor. He subsequently served as vocal coach with the Altenburg Opera and the Erfurt Opera House in Germany.
Maestro Preu studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Weimar, where he earned a masters degree in conducting, and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris. He came to the United States in 1996 as winner of the National Conducting Competition of the German Academic Exchange Service for graduate studies with Harold Farberman at the Hartt School of Music, where he also received the Karl Boehm Scholarship. In 1998, he took third place at the International Competition for Young Conductors of the European Union in Spoleto, Italy.
Eckart Preu has been a Visiting Assistant Professor at Bard College in New York, as well as a member of the guest faculty of the C.W. Post Chamber Music Festival. He is a frequent guest speaker for local businesses, community organizations, and schools in Connecticut, and has contributed a music column to the Stamford Advocate.
