A versatile conductor who feels equally at home in orchestral and operatic repertoire. He regularly conducts such leading European orchestras as the Orchestre National de France, Vienna’s Musikverein, Staatskapelle Berlin, and Westdeutsche Rundfunk.

Recently he made a successful debut with the London Symphony Orchestra. He also makes appearances in Japan (with Yomiuri Nippon and Tokyo Metropolitan), South Korea (Seoul Philharmonic), at festivals in Salzburg, Lucerne, Schwetzingen, Donaueschingen, the Biennale Musica di Venezia, Wiener Festwochen, and Wien Modern. In his programming, he combines traditional repertoire with 20th-century classics and most recent works. With the Bremer Philharmoniker he interpreted Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra, among others. His minifestival of violin concertos included performances of works by Alban Berg, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev, Arnold Schoenberg, and Karl Amadeus Hartmann, featuring Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Dresden Philharmonic under his baton.

The opera occupies a special place in Stockhammer’s career. He has notably conducted Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Maurice Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole, Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face, Pascal Dusapin’s Faustus. LastNight, Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Eine florentinische Tragödie, Luigi Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore, Peter Eötvös’s Tri Sestri / Three Sisters, Wolfgang Rihm’s Proserpina, and Salvatore Sciarrino’s Luci mie traditrici. His new production of Alfred Schnittke’s Life with an Idiotat Zurich Opera earned him enormous acclaim.