“The Detroit Opera Orchestra led by the brilliant Stephanie Childress, who is making her Detroit Opera conducting debut, played Mazzoli’s complex score with subtlety and finesse.”

Conductor Stephanie Childress powerfully leads a particularly game Detroit Opera Orchestra through some extensively powerful, surprising and thoughtful moments in acts two and three.

“All are fired up to white heat in a well-played performance of irresistible energy from Stephanie Childress and the Glyndebourne Sinfonia.”

“Childress, conducting from memory, kept her tempos perky and her directions vivid, powerful and energetic. Longer-than-usual pauses between movements allowed the mood of one to make way for the next.”

“Childress has an elastic quality about her, cutting a strong yet pliable figure on the podium… She seemed at home in front of the SLSO – in command, into the music, and having some genuine fun with the musicians and audience alike.”

“The most recent concert presented a mostly Finnish programme, originally intended for Susanna Malkki, but conducted in the event, and with full engagement, by Stephanie Childress. The novelties here were headed by Kaija Saariaho’s Lumiere et Pesanteur, a brief glimpse into a hypersensitive sound-world, where lights flicker in the finest of mists, the subtlety of the music not even compromised by substantial parts for trumpet and other brass.”

‘She played the lazy intro with perfect pitch and then went on with soft, sweet and serene panache. There was a good balance between orchestra and soloist as we were taken on a journey flying high as a lark in the summer sky. There was playful accompaniment from the woodwind section and a simply sumptuous solo performance from Childress. She displayed delightful bow work with the gentlest of nuances, both transfixing and transcendent.‘

“Stephanie Childress, was both the conductor and the concert’s stand out performer. From the moment she entered the Chapel she commanded the orchestra with such poise and energy that it was truly impossible to believe she was only eighteen years of age. In a video played before the concert, St John’s’ Director of Music commented on some of the notable young conductors of the past, such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Sir Simon Rattle. Perhaps such heights too lie in wait for Childress, who successfully tackled what she described in her Twitter feed as ​“the gargantuan mass of music” that is Beethoven’s 9^th symphony.”