Johannes Müller-Stosch, Music Director

German born conductor Johannes Müller-Stosch serves as Music Director and Conductor of the Holland Symphony Orchestra. He is also Director of Orchestral Studies and Prof. of Conducting at the Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach.

During his doctoral studies he served as Assistant Conductor of the famed Eastman Philharmonia Orchestra and won Eastman’s prestigious Walter Hagen Conducting Prize. He has held conducting positions with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Brockport Symphony (New York), Tri State Players (Ohio), and served repeatedly on the conducting and coaching staff at the Opera Theatre Festival in Lucca, Italy. A concert tour with the Eastman String Orchestra brought Müller-Stosch to Japan where he conducted concerts as part of Hiroshima's 2006 Peace Festival. He received much acclaim for his doctoral project and concert with the Eastman Philharmonia, which surveyed all four symphonies by early 20th century Viennese composer Franz Schmidt.

In 1997 after winning the coveted Strader Organ Competition in Cincinnati, Ohio, he received two Master of Music degrees in organ performance and orchestral conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music on full-tuition scholarship. In 2003, he achieved recognition as a finalist in the prestigious Besançon International Conducting Competition. He has been visiting guest conductor for new opera productions at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, including Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte (2004), the world premier of Joel Hoffman's The Memory Game (2003), and Virgil Thomson's The Mother Of Us All (2001). For these he received outstanding reviews in the American Record Guide. He worked repeatedly as visiting opera conductor at the Opera Theater at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2000 he served as Music Director of the Museumsinsel-Operafestival in Berlin, Germany.

Concert tours as soloist and collaborative artist have taken him throughout Germany, Italy, Chile, and Japan. Müller-Stosch has several commercial recordings to his credit. His most recent CD celebrating the renovation of Twelve Corners Presbyterian Church's Casavant Frères organ (Rochester, NY) has been featured on NPR's With Heart and Voice.

"Johannes Müller-Stosch led expertly."—The Cincinnati Post

"CCM alumnus conductor Müller-Stosch returned for a heroic effort and … elicited fine playing. Special praise must go to conductor Johannes Müller-Stosch … this [CCM Opera Orchestra] was a tightly wound group, alert, pert and solid."—American Record Guide

"The singers and members of the orchestra were literally clinging to his charismatic leadership and expressive gestures"—Sulinger Kreiszeitung