Director of Chapel Music
Senior Lecturer of Conducting and Ensembles, Bienen School of Music
- Phone: 847-491-7256
- Email: swa440@northwestern.edu
Stephen Alltop has built a career based on excellence in several disciplines, conducting both orchestral and choral ensembles, and performing as a keyboard artist. He joined the Northwestern University Conducting faculty in 1992, and has served as Director of Music at Alice Millar Chapel since 1994.
Under his direction, the Chapel Choir has performed numerous masterworks, including:
- Brahms Schicksalslied
- Duruflé’s Requiem
- Dvorak’s Te Deum
- Handel’s Dixit Dominus
- Joshua
- Judas Maccabaeus and Solomon
- Fauré’s Requiem
- Haydn’s The Creation
- Theresienmesse and Mass in Time of War
- Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610
- Mozart’s Coronation Mass
- Schubert’s Masses in G, C and A-flat
- Telemann’s Der Tag des Gerichts
He serves as Music Director of the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra and the Green Lake Choral Institute.
As Associate Conductor of the Peninsula Music Festival, he has performed many solo works as a harpsichord and organ soloist. He has worked closely with many leading composers of the day, including residency projects with John Corigliano and Eric Whitacre. He has conducted world premieres of music by Jan Bach, Miguel del Agila, Frederico Cumar, Frank Ferko, Fabrizio Festa, Ricardo Iznaola, Maxwell Raimi, Kenkichi Sakai, Giancarlo Scarvaglieri, Andrew Suter, Alan Terricciano and Hiroaki Tokunaga.
Stephen Alltop became music director and conductor of the Apollo Chorus of Chicago in 1997. He has led the Chorus in such masterworks as Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Haydn's The Creation and has guided Apollo’s activities to include appearances at the Ravinia Festival and Peninsula Music Festival. Alltop has expanded Apollo’s repertoire in both early and contemporary music, from works of the Mexican Baroque period to compositions of Eric Whitacre.
Mr. Alltop has guest conducted numerous orchestras and choruses across the United States. He has led opera and orchestral concerts with a number of Italian orchestras, including I Soloisti di Perugia, Fondazione Arturo Toscanini in Bologna, Teatro Reggio Orchestra of Parma, Mozart Festival of Roverto, Orchestra Sinfonica of Bari, Teatro Piccinni of Bari, and the Festival Duni in Matera. In 2007, he made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting music of Eric Whitacre.
As a harpsichordist and organist, Mr. Alltop has performed with the Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Joffrey Ballet, Minnesota Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the Omaha Symphony. He appeared as organ soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival of 2008 in Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3. He made his Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription concert debut as a harpsichord soloist in 2009 playing Bach with conductor Pinchas Zukerman.