Stephen Delaney

Stephen Delaney, solo and collaborative pianist, conductor, coach, and dedicated educator was born in Sydney, Australia. He has appeared at numerous international music festivals including the Banff Chamber Music Festival, Wien Modern. Furthermore, he has performed in the Musikverein Wien and Wiener Konzerthaus, at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt, the Maifestspiele in Wiesbaden and at the Austrian Cultural Forum in Istanbul and Teheran.

As collaborative pianist, Stephen Delaney has performed numerous recitals with well-known singers, including Gundula Janowitz, Brigid Steinberger, Ramón Vargas, and Max Emanuel Cencic. His longstanding association with Gundula Janowitz as pianist for her international masterclasses across Europe, has taken a special place in his development as a passionate pianist for art song, and he himself has held masterclasses for art song across Europe, Asia and Australia. The release of the CD in 2011 of »Die schöne Müllerin« with Erwin Belakowitsch was received with great acclaim.

Until 2015, Stephen Delaney was a faculty member at the mdw, the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna and from 2015 to 2020, he was director of OperAvenir, Theater Basel’s opera studio. During this time, he was musical director for many highly successful productions including »The Cricket Recovers« by Richard Ayres, »Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren« by Stefan Johannes Hanke, »Romeo und Julia« by Boris Blacher, »Trouble in Tahiti« by Leonard Bernstein, »Der Kaiser von Atlantis« by Viktor Ullmann and for world premieres of »The Goldbug« by Dai Fujikura and »Schellen-Ursli«, a family opera with libretto and music by Marius Felix Lange. He was assistant conductor for the world premiere of »Andersen’s Erzählungen«, music by Jherek Bischoff and libretto by Jan Dvořak, and for »Le vin herbé« by Frank Martin. In collaboration with the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Basel Sinfonietta and the Paul-Sacher-Stiftung, he initiated and established the popular concert series »Sachers musikalische Wunderkammer« at Theater Basel.

Currently, Stephen Delaney is on the faculty at the mdw, the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna and is responsible for special projects. In March 2022, the CD »matters of the heart« was released, a recording of Lieder by Robert Schumann and Richard Strauss with the Irish soprano Sarah Brady, a co-production with Prospero Classical and SRF 2 (Swiss Classic Radio). In the same year he was assistant to conductor Titus Engel for the production of »Bluthaus« by Georg Friedrich Hass at the Bavarian State Opera and assistant to Alistair Digges for a production of »La traviata« for Reisopera in Holland.

Beginning with the season 2023/2024 Stephen Delaney is designated artistic director for the newly formed opera studio with a focus on feature opera and operetta at Gärtnerplatztheater.