Stefan Karpe, director musices

Stefan Karpe (b. 1962) was educated at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Since then he has guest conducted many Swedish orchestras and has also worked throughout Europe and in Australia with, for example, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Helsinki Symphony Orchestra, and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

As assisting conductor Stefan Karpe has participated in productions as Falstaff at the Aix en Provence Festival, Stravinsky’s Biblical Pieces at the Netherlands Opera with director Peter Sellars, a TV production of The Rake’s Progress (for Swedish TV), and the performances of Ligeti’s complete orchestral works with the Philharmonia Orchestra, London with Esa-Pekka Salonen. As of 2002 Stefan Karpe is director musices and professor of orchestral conducting at Uppsala University. During the period 2004 – 2007 he was artistic director and principal conductor of the Dala Sinfonietta. Between the years 2002 to 2012 has was also the artistic director of the international music festival in Scheersberg, Germany. At Uppsala University he also initiated and conducted productions of Tosca (2008) and Otello (2010) with the participation of the Royal Academic Orchestra, choirs at the University, and professional soloists. In the spring of 2008 Stefan Karpe received the Puccini International Award for the University’s performance of Tosca. 2015 he received the award Torgny Segerstedt’s Kulturstipendium.

It was on Stefan Karpes initiative that Uppsala University in 2011 founded the The European Network of University Orchestras (ENUO) which brings together university symphony orchestras in Europe by facilitating communication between its member organizations. The mission of ENUO is to serve as a platform where members of European university symphony orchestras and their administrations can easily share information and exchange ideas. By facilitating these interactions, ENUO aims to inspire creative cooperation between its members, and as a result, provide a deeper cultural understanding within the European Union. Currently, the network has around 120 member orchestras.