These concerts are the North Carolina Symphony debut for Stephanie Childress.

   In the 2021/22 season, Stephanie Childress  will continue in her post as Assistant Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) and Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. Following her success taking second prize at the inaugural conducting competition, La Maestra, she has a number of engagements with orchestras in France, including l’Orchestre de Paris, Paris Mozart Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Opera Orchestre national Montpellier, and Orchestre symphonique de Mulhouse. Elsewhere she will join the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, and Dohnányi Orchestra in Budapest.
   Now in her early 20s, Childress took up her position as Assistant Conductor of SLSO for a shortened four-week residency in the 2020/21 season due to the pandemic and made appearances with orchestras in the United Kingdom, including conducting debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, and London Mozart Players.
   Having been inspired to start conducting due to her love of opera, Childress joined the music staff at Glyndebourne Festival during the summer of 2021 to assist on productions of Rossini’s Il turco in Italia and Verdi’s Luisa Miller.
   As a violinist, Childress rose to prominence as a string finalist in BBC Young Musician of the Year in both 2016 and 2018. She was featured in the BBC’s 2019 Proms Launch Video ahead of her Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall with the Southbank Sinfonia and Jessica Cottis. Shortly after, she performed alongside the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at Glasgow’s Proms in the Park. In January 2020, she made her solo debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Vasily Petrenko.