Hailed as a "visionary" by the BBC Music Magazine,
conductor Steven Fox is Artistic Director of The Clarion Choir & The Clarion Orchestra in New York, and Music Director of Cathedral Choral Society at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.
Steven was named an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, London, in 2010 ‘for significant contributions to his field in music,’ and has received GRAMMY® nominations for his first three recordings: Steinberg's Passion Week (2016), Kastalsky's Memory Eternal (2018), and Kastalsky's Requiem (2020).
He has conducted renowned ensembles such as the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Opéra de Québec, Chicago's Music of the Baroque, San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Boston's Handel and Haydn Society, Juilliard415, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Portland's Cappella Romana, and Toronto's Theatre of Early Music. His performances have taken him to some of the most prestigious halls internationally, such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, St. Petersburg's Grand Philharmonic Hall, the Hermitage Theater, Moscow's Rachmaninoff Hall, London's Duke's Hall, and the Vatican.
In recent years, he has collaborated with artists and ensembles such as Harry Bicket and The English Concert, Susan Graham, Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Eric Jacobsen and The Knights Chamber Orchestra. In 2017, Steven and The Clarion Orchestra mounted the organization's first fully-staged opera production, Mozart’s Magic Flute. The production, staged by renowned Canadian director Alain Gauthier, was called 'a deft reach across two centuries' by The New York Times and 'a delight, on all fronts' by Opera (UK). The following year, Steven conducted The Clarion Choir in a performance with Madonna at the 2018 Met Gala, including the world premiere of 'Dark Ballet'.
Steven graduated as a Senior Fellow with High Honors in Music and Russian from Dartmouth College, and with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music. Steven founded Musica Antiqua St. Petersburg as Russia’s first period-instrument orchestra at the age of 21, and premiered several important Russian 18th-century symphonic and operatic works with the orchestra.
From 2008 to 2013 he was an Associate Conductor at New York City Opera, and, in 2011, served as Assistant Conductor for the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Program and Juilliard Opera. He has given master classes and clinics at The Royal Academy of Music, Dartmouth College, The Juilliard School, and Yale University, where he served for two years as preparatory conductor of the Yale Schola Cantorum.
Steven Fox to Conduct All of Rachmaninoff's
Major Choral Works in 2023
In addition to the tour of the Rachmaninoff Vespers, conductor Steven Fox, between his two renowned ensembles, The Clarion Choir in New York and Cathedral Choral Society in Washington, DC, will undertake to conduct all of Rachmaninoff's major choral works between the two cities in the spring of 2023 in honor of the composer's 150th anniversary. While orchestras will be celebrating Rachmaninoff through his symphonies and concertos, Mr. Fox would like to make sure that this important other corner of the composer's works are also duly celebrated in this anniversary year.
With Cathedral Choral Society, Mr. Fox will conduct Rachmaninoff's major choral-orchestral works in Washington National Cathedral: The Bells (text by Edgar Allan Poe), which was Rachmaninoff's other favorite work in addition to the Vespers, together with the Spring Cantata, Op. 20, and his setting of Three Russian Folk Songs for chorus and orchestra, Op. 41.
In New York, The Clarion Choir will perform Rachmaninoff's Vespers and his other major a cappella work, Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.
“An inspired interpretation. Mr. Fox revealed the drama of the score with vivid dynamic shadings. Intonation and pacing were exemplary throughout the performance.”
The New York Times
“Never seen in 20 years, I swear. The 100 choristers were ready to follow their conductor to the end of the world, because the presence of Steven Fox made all the difference.”
Le Soleil
"An esteemed director."
The New Yorker