Stephen Charette, conductor

Stephen Charette was born in Seattle, Washington. Stephen started to play the piano at the age of 10 and went on to the Interlochen Arts Academy to study piano and clarinet. He then attended The Cleveland Institute of Music to continue his clarinet studies. It was only after arriving in Japan during the summer of 2003 that Stephen started to show an interest in conducting. After a rigorous audition process, he was then accepted into the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music and recieved his Master's of Music in Conducting. Teacher's studied with at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music include Kotaro Sato, Ken-ichiro Kobayashi, Hiroyuki Odano, Yoshikazu Tanaka and Yoko Matsuo.
Orchestra's conducted include the Incheon Philharmonic, Central Aichi Symphony, Geidai Philharmonia, Pioneer Symphony, Global Philharmonic, Nerima Symphony, Edogawa Philharmonic, Setagaya Philharmonic, NHK Friendship Orchestra, Yokohama-Aoba Orchestra, Yokkaichi Symphony and the Kanagawa Philharmonic Chorus. He has also worked with youth and college orchestra's throughout Japan including the Funabashi Youth Symphony, Sumida Triphony Hall Junior Orchestra, Kanazawa University Philharmonic Orchestra and Tsukuba University Orchestra.
Stephen was invited to Korea to take part in the first Incheon and Arts Festival with masterclasses held by Maestro Myung-Whun Chung and Arild Remmereit. Other masterclasses participated in were with Zsolt Nagy, AndrĂ¡s Ligeti, Douglas Bostock, Tadaaki Otaka, Junichi Hirokami, and Michiyoshi Inoue.
Upcoming engagements in the 2010-2011 season include a concert with the Nagoya Philharmonic.