“When Stephanie Childress steps onto the podium this spring at Powell Hall, she will begin her tenure as assistant conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra,” writes Jen Roberts in the January issue of St. Louis Magazine. “The 21-year-old has already received many accolades … but considers conducting the SLSO for her audition to be one of the top musical experiences of her life. ‘I did the first downbeat to the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, and the sound jumped back at me,’ she says. ’It was full of warm emotion. It was charged. It was intense.’ Childress auditioned just before the pandemic began.… She spoke … from her flat in London about her background as a musician and what she hopes to learn from working alongside music director Stéphane Denève.” In an interview, Childress talks about asking for violin lessons at age 4 after attending a concert by Nigel Kennedy; playing in the U.K.’s National Youth Orchestra; sitting in on English National Opera rehearsals as a 13-year-old; her shared passion with Denève for French music; looking forward to working with the St. Louis Symphony’s youth orchestra; and plans to play violin with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
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