Stephanie Childress most recently conducted the North Carolina Symphony in November of 2024, for concerts in Raleigh and Chapel Hill that featured Holst’s The Planets and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

Franco-British conductor Stephanie Childress concluded her 2024/25 season with debuts with the San Francisco, Houston, and San Diego symphonies, alongside a return to The Cleveland Orchestra. She began her tenure in 2024 as Principal Guest Conductor of Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya. Her 2025/26 season began with a debut at The Juilliard School conducting Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony and leading the New York premiere of Anna Clyne’s Palette. Orchestral engagements this season also include the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, and Minnesota Orchestra. She will debut this season with the Zürich Chamber Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and make her Australian debut in April 2026 with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Last season saw returns to the New World and Utah symphonies, as well as Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, and Opéra orchestre national de Montpellier. This season marks her first production of Verdi’s La Traviata, at the Finnish National Opera, alongside a gala performance with l’Opéra de Paris at the Palais Garnier.

Since her second-prize win at the inaugural La Maestra conducting competition in 2020, Childress has conducted ensembles in France including Orchestre de Paris, Paris Mozart Orchestra, Orchestre national d’Ile de France, and Orchestre de chambre de Paris. She will debut with the Orchestre national Bordeaux Aquitaine in the 2025/26 season.

Childress previously undertook a residency at the Villa Albertine, a network for arts and ideas spanning France and the United States. She is also a member of the Franco-British Young Leaders’ Program. She enjoys a close connection to the Sun Valley Music Festival Institute, where she was previously Associate Conductor, and is a regular faculty member at the Sarasota Music Festival. During her own training, she served as Assistant Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony under Stéphane Denève from 2021 to 2023 and was one of the first conductors to join l’Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris.