Scottish born Maestro Stewart Robertson was Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, Florida Grand Opera, and the internationally renowned Glimmerglass Opera Festival in New York. His musical interests were extensive and wide ranging with a repertory of close to one hundred operas and over six hundred orchestral works. He was a keen advocate of contemporary music, having conducted many world premieres of both orchestral and operatic works.
Formerly Music Director of both the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra and the San Bernardino Symphony in California, Maestro Robertson guest conducted many major orchestras worldwide including the Scottish National and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nacional of Mexico City, San Jose Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Mecklenburg Staatskapelle and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. He conducted the Ukraine State Philharmonic both in the home city of Kiev and on a European tour including a performance at Amsterdam’s famed Concertgebouw and recorded with them symphonies of Shostakovih and Prokofiev.
Robertson became the youngest conductor to lead a performance at the Cologne Opera since Herbert von Karajan. He served as music director of the Zurich Ballet and Scottish Opera Touring Company. He conducted New York City Opera productions broadcast Live from Lincoln Center. Additional musical director credits with Inland Empire Symphony Orchestra, Lille Festival, Florida Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, Chicago Lyric, Cologne, Zurich, Scottish Opera.
Robertson’s commercial recordings include Richard Rodney Bennett’s opera The Mines of Sulphur and Stephen Hartke’s opera The Greater Good both of which featured performers from Glimmerglass Opera.
A native of Glasgow, Scotland, Mr. Robertson was a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music. He studied piano with Denis Mathews, conducting with Otmar Suitner at the Mozarteum, Salzburg where he placed second in the Austrian radio international conductor’s competition, and with the legendary Hans Swarowsky in Vienna.
Mr. Robertson is survived by his wife, Meryl, and their children.
