Music Director of the Teatro Colón from 2005 to 2008, Stefan Lano began conducting through his work as composer and after an extensive tenure on the music staff of the Vienna State Opera. The 1976 premiere of his Sinfonie Nr. 1 (Yuval) at the Newport Music Festival afforded him his initial experience in the symphonic genre, both as composer and conductor. After completing degrees in Composition at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Biology at Oberlin College, he was awarded a full scholarship for study at Harvard University, from which he holds a PhD in Composition. Among his awards as a composer are a BMI Award in Composition for his Sinfonie Nr. 1, the National Society of Arts and Letters First Prize for his Concerto for Piano and Wind Orchestra and an American Music Center (Rockefeller Foundation) Composition Grant.

As a student of Isang Yun in Berlin, Stefan Lano was recipient of a scholarship from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) in 1977, during which time he composed his Sinfonie Nr. 2 (Grodek). He was subsequently engaged as Repetiteur and Kapellmeister at the Graz Opera. In 1982 Lorin Maazel appointed him to the music staff of the Vienna State Opera where he remained for many years, during which time he also worked and performed at the Salzburg Festival, Teatro alla Scala Milano and Teatro Liceu Barcelona. In 1988, he was appointed Associate Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, a position which he held for three seasons prior to returning to Europe.

Since his return to Europe in 1991, he has won critical and public acclaim with a diverse repertoire at major musical centers in Europe, Japan, Canada, South America and the United States of America.

For the first South American performances of the complete version of Alban Berg's Lulu Stefan Lano was invited to inaugurate the 1993 season of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. The press praised this production as one of the most important and significant in the history of the Teatro Colón. Since that time, Lano has been a regular guest in Buenos Aires, conducting Wozzeck and Bluebeard's Castle in 1995, L'amour des trois oranges in 1998; Korngold's Die Tote Stadt and Strauss' Salome in 1999. At the end of the 1999 season, he was awarded the distinction of Best Foreign Conductor from the Association of Argentine Music Critics.

Stefan Lano made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera conducting The Rake's Progress in 1997 where he also prepared the Met production of Arnold Schoenberg's Moses und Aron. This led to engagements with the San Francisco Opera for Berg's Lulu, Douglas Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe, St. Louis Opera for Le nozze di Figaro, Richard Strauss' Salome at the Cincinnati Opera.

A notable debut was made in 2002, when Stefan Lano conducted concert performances of Alban Berg's Wozzeck with the Montréal Symphony Orchestra. Critically acclaimed by public and press, Lano and the orchestra were distinguished at season's end with an OPUS Award as 'Best Concert of the 2002 Season' by the Conseil quebecoise de la musique. During this season, he also returned to the Cincinnati Opera for a new production of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking; Berlioz' La Damnation de Faust at the Teatro Colón and diverse concert appearances in Santiago de Chile, Athens, Greece and Vilnius, Lithuania, and concerts in Spain with the orchestra of the Escuela Superior de la Música Reina Sophia. He was re-invited by the Montréal Symphony in 2003 to conduct Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle and the complete ballet music of Roussel's Bacchus et Ariane. For these concerts, he and the orchestra again won the OPUS Award for Best Concert of the 2003 Season. This was followed by a commemorative production of Alberto Ginastera's opera, Bomarzo at the Teatro Colón; a new production of Puccini's Turandot at the National Opera Theater of Lithuania and concerts with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires, Singapore Symphony and Lithuanian National Philharmonic with pianist, Muza Rubackyte.

The world premier of his Sinfonie Nr. 3 (EIKASIA) took place in December, 2004 with the composer conducting the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Orchestra. He is currently orchestrating his Sieben Lieder on texts of Rainer Maria Rilke and has been commissioned to compose a new piano concerto for Muza Rubackyte and the Lithuanian National Philharmonic.

During the 2005 season, Lano premiered two new operas in the United States: Mark Adamo's Lysistrata at the Houston Grand Opera and Richard Danielpour's Margaret Garner in co-productions with the Michigan Opera Theater, Cincinnati Opera and The Opera Company of Philadelphia. In November and December of 2005, he conducted productions of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at the Atlanta Opera and Richard Strauss' Capriccio at the Teatro Colón.

During the 2007 season, Stefan Lano conducted the Teatro Colón productions of Berg's Wozzeck, Richard Strauss' Elektra and the Requiem Mass of Giuseppe Verdi, which was also presented on tour in Argentina. The Teatro Colón also realized the first international tour in its history, presenting Puccini's Turandot in Mexico City, where Lano also conducted Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites at the Bellas Artes Theater. In addition to further appearances with the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra and return appearances in Cincinnati, Madrid and Philadelphia, he conducted a highly successful debut at the Semper Oper Dresden, where he will return for two productions in 2009: a reprise of Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking and a new production of Hans Werner Henze's L'Upupa.

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