Nathalie Stutzmann thinks, first and foremost, that “music needs to breathe” — hardly a surprising belief for the daughter of two opera singers who herself first came to fame as a singer. In her youth she studied piano, viola, and cello, but also wanted to learn an instrument “more connected with breathing,” she recalls. “I chose the bassoon, and I loved it, and played in the orchestra."

Stutzmann recalls: “As a child, I wanted to be a singer and a conductor. I was fascinated by both. I knew for sure I was going to be a musician, but those two activities were my absolute dreams.” She continues: “Then, I went to conducting class when I was 15; I was the only girl, and it was very unfriendly.” She went into the family business: “I started singing lessons, and won an international competition three years later. But I kept the conducting always in my soul as my dream.”

This multifaceted background has proved invaluable for conducting. “As a pianist you learn how to build the architecture of the music, because you are your own orchestra,” she explains. “As a bassoon player you know how to deal with breathing, and woodwinds, and brass. As a cellist you know about bowing, and how to use the millions of possibilities inherent in a string instrument. And, of course, as a singer I worked hard to shape fine colors, interesting phrasing. Many years of practicing all of this made me the musician I am today.”

The singing connection made Stutzmann a natural in the New York Philharmonic’s exploration of Vocal Echoes. As a season Artistic Partner she conducts The Ring Without Words, the 75-minute, voiceless digest that former NY Phil Music Director Lorin Maazel created from Wagner’s four-opera Ring Cycle (January 16–19). Stutzmann, who had a triumph conducting Wagner’s Tannhäuser at the Bayreuth Festival the past two summers, feels an almost fatal attraction to Wagner: “You dive into this music and it’s like almost a poison.”

She feels that The Ring Without Words works because in Wagner operas, “every intention, every color, every character, is set up in the orchestra.” Stutzmann explains that in creating this synthesis Maazel “didn’t change one note of Wagner,” giving vocal lines to “exactly the right instrument. For example, the Rhine Maidens: it’s clarinets playing — you can hear the voices. You can enjoy the genius orchestration of Wagner.”

In the free concert at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, Presented by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Stutzmann conducts works by J.S. Bach, a composer she thinks “is good for all musicians,” because his music gives them better insight into composers like Wagner. Each cantata she chose “is a small world in itself,” and each is sung by a different soloist. She describes soprano Talise Trevigne and baritone Leon Košavić as having “two very different voices, two very different characters. One cantata is very light, very sparkling, very champagne. Joyful Bach. And the other is the deep love, the deep soul of Bach.”

Music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Nathalie Stutzmann is also in high demand as a guest conductor. This season alone, she’s already crisscrossed the Atlantic to lead orchestras in nine different cities. She compares conducting an orchestra for the first time to test-driving a new car. “You just have to understand how it works, and you have a few minutes to find out and analyze.” At her NY Phil conducting debut in 2023, she sensed an instant rapport. “It was magic, and the communication with the musicians was very quickly excellent. It was really fun.” Putting it in automotive terms, the Philharmonic is “most certainly a Porsche — it’s a very good car."

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