American conductor and composer Stephen Mulligan works across symphonic, operatic, and contemporary music, and is known for his collaborative approach with musicians and audiences. He maintains a full guest conducting schedule across the United States and Europe; highlights of the 2025–26 season include debuts with the Baltimore Symphony, Syracuse Orchestra, and Cincinnati Opera, and return engagements with the New York Philharmonic and Ensemble MusikFabrik. Following productions of Puccini’s La Rondine and Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, he also continues his collaboration with the University of North Texas Opera in a new staging of Handel’s Alcina.

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As a guest conductor, he has also appeared with the Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Filarmonica Transilvania, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, the Royal Danish Opera Academy, and Athelas Ensemble, among others. A passionate advocate for new music, he has conducted numerous premieres and continues to work closely with emerging and established composers.

 

Alongside his conducting career, Mulligan is increasingly active as a composer. He has studied with Jörg Widmann at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, Miroslav Srnka at the Darmstadt Summer Courses, and João Svidzinski at IRCAM, and his works are now published by Universal Edition (Vienna). His solo work Haiku for contrabassist and vocalist Begüm Aslan inspired the creation of the Begüm Aslan Composition Competition; percussionist David Moliner will premiere a new solo work next season at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. This season Mulligan is also an Artist in Residence at the Willapa Bay Artist Residency in Washington State, with upcoming projects with FES Ensemble and the Berlin Academy of American Music (BAAM).

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Mulligan’s career launched at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he studied conducting with Robert Spano and received the Aspen Conducting Prize. Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra subsequently appointed him Assistant and then Associate Conductor, where he led hundreds of concerts, including three classical subscription jump-ins over six weeks to critical acclaim. As a Dudamel Conducting Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he stepped in for Gustavo Dudamel to lead an all-Beethoven program and conducted other performances including Stravinsky’s complete L’Histoire du Soldat. He served as Resident Conductor of the Cincinnati Opera for two seasons and is a three-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award.

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A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Mulligan began his music studies with his father Gregory, a former violinist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He studied conducting at Yale University with Toshiyuki Shimada and at the Peabody Institute with Gustav Meier, Markand Thakar, and Marin Alsop.​​​