Praised by Opera News as a conductor who “squeezes every drop of excitement and pathos from the score,” Steven White is one of North America’s premiere operatic and symphonic conductors. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut in 2010, conducting performances of La traviata starring Angela Gheorghiu. Since then he has conducted a number of Metropolitan Opera performances of La traviata, with such stars as Natalie Dessay, Hei-Kyung Hong, Plácido Domingo, Thomas Hampson, Dmitri Hvorostovksy and Matthew Polenzani. In the past several seasons he has returned to the Met to participate in critically fêted productions of Don Carlo, Billy Budd, The Rake’s Progress and Elektra.

With a vibrant repertoire of over sixty-five titles, Maestro White’s extensive operatic engagements have included performances with New York City Opera, L’Opera de Montréal, Vancouver Opera, Opera Colorado, Pittsburgh Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Baltimore Opera, New Orleans Opera, and many others. In recent seasons he has conducted Rigoletto with San Diego Opera, Otello with Austin Opera, La traviata with Utah Opera, and a world premiere staged production of a brand-new Bärenreiter edition of Gounod’s Faust with Opera Omaha. In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the cancellation of his eleventh production at Arizona Opera, Ariadne auf Naxos, as well as the company premiere of André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire at Opera Roanoke.

Music critics are effusive in their praise of conductor Steven White’s ability to elicit inspired music-making from orchestras. Of his 2016 performances with the Omaha Symphony, the Omaha World-Herald asserts that, “it would be hard to imagine a more complete performance of the Symphonie Fantastique. Highly nuanced, tightly controlled and crisp, Steven White asked everything from orchestra members and they were flawless. He led them out of serene beauty into disturbing dissonance and even to the terrifying point of musical madness without ever losing control. It was insanely good.” Opera News declares, “White is amazing: he consistently demands and gets the absolute best playing from the orchestra.”

Among the many orchestras Maestro White has conducted are the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, the Mozarteum und Salzburg Kulturvereinigung Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony Orchestra, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic, the Fort Worth Symphony and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra for a CHANDOS recording of arias featuring his wife, soprano Elizabeth Futral. In 2019 he made debuts with the San Diego Symphony, the Utah Symphony Orchestra and the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra.

Maestro White is a passionate and dedicated educator. He has served multiple artistic residencies and led productions at such institutions as the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, the University of Miami Frost School of Music Program in Salzburg, Kennesaw State University and Virginia Tech University. In the summer of 2019 he served as an artist in residence at the Shanghai Conservatory in China and in 2020 he led a critically acclaimed production of La clemenza di Tito for the North Carolina School of the Arts Fletcher Opera Institute. He is in constant demand as an adjudicator of the most prestigious music and vocal competitions, including numerous auditions for the Metropolitan Opera National Council and the Jensen Foundation.

Steven White proudly makes his home in Virginia, where he serves as Artistic Director of Opera Roanoke, a company with which he has been associated for two decades. Maestro White has conducted dozens of productions in Roanoke, including performances of Das Lied von der Erde, Der fliegende Holländer, Fidelio, Falstaff, Otello, Macbeth, Aida, Hänsel und Gretel and many others. In recognition of his contributions to the civic, cultural and artistic life of Southwest Virginia, Roanoke College conferred on Maestro White an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts in May 2013.

Utah Opera – La traviata

Conductor Steven White draws an opulent performance from the Utah Symphony.”

Catherine Reese Newton, Utah Arts Review

Austin Opera – Otello

Fortunately, Austin Opera had Steven White on the podium to oversee the musical elements, which he did with a sure hand. Maestro White has one of the most elegant baton techniques to be seen anywhere and an exceptional understanding of Verdi’s music. He elicited extraordinarily fine playing from the musicians of the Austin Opera Orchestra – and from the excellent chorus – who seemed to enjoy giving him their best. The intonation in the double basses at the beginning of the final scene was as precise as I have ever heard it – no mean feat in this unusual piece of scoring. The offstage trumpets played superbly, with impeccable and thrilling precision. Most importantly, Maestro White gave his singers everything they needed to feel comfortable in their roles, shaping the music from beginning to end with detailed and beautiful phrasing.”

Paul E. Robinson, La Scena Musicale

Arizona Opera – Tosca

Conductor Steven White drew dramatic, veristic playing from the Arizona Opera Orchestra. His interpretation gave the singers the melodic accompaniment as well as the space needed to perform at their best…It was the best Tosca I had seen in quite a few years.”

Maria Nockin, Opera Today

Opera Omaha – Cosi fan tutte

The opera was conducted by Steven White, whose tempos were full of energy and life, teetering on the verge of tumult. White is amazing: he consistently demands and gets the absolute best playing from the orchestra.

Kevin Hanrahan, Opera News

Peabody Opera – Street Scene

Making the most of that score was the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, which maintained admirable technical polish and expressive force all night under the sensitive guidance of conductor Steven White.”

Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun

The Metropolitan Opera – La traviata

Steven White was in the pit the night I attended. He, too, is an American, and he was making his Met debut. He conducted La traviata with knowledge, sensitivity, and security.”
Jay Nordlinger, The New Criterion

Steven White made his Met debut as conductor of La traviata, one of four men dividing that task this season. He sounded like a veteran, pacing the opera effectively during most scenes and deftly accommodating the soprano during her indulgences.”
Steve Cohen, The Opera Critic

Opera Birmingham – La bohème

Not enough can be said about conductor Steven White and Alabama Symphony musicians in the pit. They simply clicked all evening, propelling the action with depth, balance and color.”

Michael Huebner, artsBHAM

Arizona Opera – Eugene Onegin

In the pit, Steven White’s coordination with the stage proved admirable, his concept of structure and tempi convincing.”
David Shengold, Opera News Online

Charleston Symphony – Strauss & Mahler

Conductor Steven White appealed to the symphony players’ operatic instincts, leading the musicians up and down Strauss’ lush Bavarian terrain with purpose and a certain appreciation for the wholeness of these four songs.”
Adam Parker, The Post & Courier

Lyric Opera Baltimore – Madama Butterfly

…the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a welcome presence in the pit, digging into the riches of Puccini’s prismatic score under the impassioned conducting of Steven White. He gives the most heart-stirring passages in the opera wonderfully spacious treatment.”
Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun

Opera Birmingham – Rigoletto

“But it was conductor Steven White who was largely responsible for making this performance work. Once Opera Birmingham’s principal conductor, White returned to the pit to an Alabama Symphony that was prepared, precise and expressive at every turn. A better liaison between orchestra and on-stage action would be hard to find. The smallish stage and pit helped to bring that about, but White exercised as much give-and-take as a chamber musician, all the while moving the plot along with impeccable timing.”
Michael Huebner, Alabama.com

 

Opera Roanoke – Wagner Highlights Concert

White consistently gets great results from the RSO, and Saturday night was no exception. The overture to “Die Meistersinger” was thrilling: full-bodied, noble, magnificent. The tremendous crescendo to the finish was breath taking and evoked immediate yells of approval.”
Seth Williamson, The Roanoke Times

Nashville Opera – Tosca

Steven White smoothly conducts the stellar players from Nashville Symphony in Puccini’s poetic score.”
Evans Donnell, The Tennessean

Fort Worth Opera – Lucia di Lammermoor

Steven White’s passionate pacing squeezed every drop of excitement and pathos from the score.”
Opera News

Vancouver Opera – Lucia di Lammermoor

Conductor Steven White elicited a warm, rich sound from the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, at times giving a performance of white-heat intensity, particularly in the sextet and final scene.”
The Review

Michigan Opera Theatre – Die Entführung aus dem Serail

Under the baton of conductor Steven White, the orchestra sounded appropriately light, lively and passionate.”
Opera News

Baltimore Opera – L’assedio di Corinto

Steven White conducted exceptionally well: Rossini created some wonderful music here, mostly dark but occasionally triumphant, and White paced it to perfection and let the singers carry the day, as they should in bel canto.”
The Washington Post

Steven White, who coaxed mostly smooth playing from the orchestra, conducted with a sure sense of melodic contour and rhythmic flexibility. He also prepared the edition of the score, borrowing a little from Maometto II, which was the precursor to The Siege of Corinth, and an aria for Futral from a much earlier Rossini opera. By and large, the result was a musically cohesive version of an opera that deserves to be better known – and to receive the benefit of more theatrical fire.”
The Baltimore Sun

New York City Opera – La bohème

The always-reliable City Opera orchestra played their hearts out in this score, which they do on a regular basis. I was very appreciative of conductor Steven White’s decision to let this music breathe. It was the undercurrent that made Musetta’s waltz (and its swelling reprise) so moving. Rather than treat this music like a cliche, Maestro White played it as if we were hearing it for the first time.”
New York Sun

Baltimore Opera – La sonnambula

White kept stage and pit in sync and had the orchestra playing with a stylish touch and applied telling fire to the most dramatic moments of the score.”
Opera News

The orchestra played firmly for Steven White, whose assured conducting revealed obvious affection for Bellini’s score.”
The Baltimore Sun

Thankfully, conductor Steven White kept everything on track, continually eliciting colorful music and artistry.”
The Washington Post

Baltimore Opera – I puritani

So it was during Saturday night’s opener of the Baltimore production, thanks in large measure to the starry efforts of soprano Elizabeth Futral and tenor Gregory Kunde in the lead roles, and the uncommonly sensitive guidance of conductor Steven Whiteƒ. Except for a sadly wayward horn soloist, the orchestra was a full-fledged partner in the performance, which White shaped with an incisive appreciation for drama-enhancing nuance and rhythmic flexibility. Too bad he had to sanction some time-saving cuts in the score. This was one night when I would have gladly heard every note.”
The Baltimore Sun

Wolf Trap Opera – L’elisir d’amore

On July 28, Steven White conducted a snappy performance that didn’t slight the score’s sweet moments or miss opportunities to apply some gentle rubato.”
Opera News Online

On Wednesday night, Steven White, who will lead Baltimore Opera’s performances of Bellini’s I Puritani in November, conducted a snappy performance that didn’t slight the score’s sweet moments.”
The Baltimore Sun

Sarasota Opera – Werther

Steven White led a performance that confirmed impressions of Sarasota’s orchestra as an excellent pit band and deftly balanced Massenet’s delicate orchestra textures against his stormier outbursts.”
Financial Times

The orchestra, conducted by Steven White, gave superb support throughout the evening.”
Sarasota Arts & Living

As conducted by Steven White, the opera moved smoothly from the expository first act through to an emotionally charged final death scene…the ensuing result in this Sarasota Opera production is gripping.”
Venice Goldolier Sun

Opera Colorado – La traviata

Conductor Steven White does a first-rate job in the pit, superbly pacing this production and animating the ensemble scenes. His skills at accompaniment are especially evident in this aria (Ah fors’ lui…Sempre libera), as he allows Futral to minutely shape the aria in her own way and makes sure the orchestra is right with her every step of the way.”
The Denver Post