The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra has a new resident conductor and Youth Symphony music director.

He’s Ward Stare, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s League of American Orchestra’s Conducting Fellow. The former principal trombone of Lyric Opera of Chicago, Stare, a Juilliard graduate, received the Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize (2006) and the Aspen Conducting Prize (2007) at the Aspen Music Festival and School.

Here’s the press release in full:

SAINT LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF Ward Stare as Resident Conductor

Stare will also be Music Director of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra

May 5, 2008 — The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) announced today the appointment of Ward Stare as Resident Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra (SLSYO).

Stare will join the conducting staff of the SLSO on September 1, 2008, for an initial two-year term in the newly-created position of Resident Conductor of the SLSO. He will also hold the title of Music Director of the SLSYO, for which he will be responsible for selecting players, conducting rehearsals and three concerts, as well as conducting additional runout concerts each season. His conducting activities as Resident Conductor of the SLSO will encompass Family Concerts, Kinder Konzerts, Young People’s and Young Adult Concerts, and Holiday Concerts. In addition, Stare will conduct Community Concerts in Powell Symphony Hall and throughout the region. He will conduct a week of subscription concerts in the 2009/10 season. Stare was selected from among more than 250 candidates from across the United States and from a wide pool of highly-qualified international applicants.

SLSO Music Director David Robertson said, “I’m delighted that we were able to appoint Ward Stare as Resident Conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra because he combines a deep talent with a vast experience of orchestral music despite his relatively young age. He was chosen from an extremely good group of candidates, and I am pleased to have him as part of the Saint Louis Symphony family.”

Stare is currently the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s League of American Orchestra’s Conducting Fellow. He is recipient of both the Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize (2006) and the Aspen Conducting Prize (2007) at the Aspen Music Festival and School. He was trained as a trombonist at the Juilliard School in Manhattan and appointed, at the age of 18, to the post of Principal Trombone of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He has performed as an orchestral musician with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, among others. Upcoming conducting appearances include concerts with the UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra at the Festival del Sole in Napa Valley, concerts as assistant to David Zinman at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and a debut concert with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester in Berlin, assisting Sir Andrew Davis as second conductor in Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 4.

The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) has been a source of pride for the St. Louis region since its founding in 1880. The SLSO has earned a reputation as a first-tier orchestra through generations of excellent performances, its mastery of a wide-ranging repertoire, and a tradition of partnering with leading musical artists from around the world. Led by innovative American-born conductor David Robertson, the Orchestra continues to strive for artistic excellence, fiscal responsibility and community connection.

In addition to its regular concert performances at Powell Symphony Hall, the SLSO is an integral part of the St. Louis community, presenting more than 250 free education and community partnership programs each year.