Conductor Stephen Gunzenhauser was born in New York. After earning degrees at the Oberlin and New England conservatories, he received three successive Fulbright grants to study at the Salzburg Mozarteum. He served as assistant to three legendary conductors—Igor Markevitch in Monte Carlo, Istvan Kertesz at the Cologne Opera, and Leopold Stokowski with the American Symphony Orchestra in New York. In 1979 he was appointed music director of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, a position he held until 2002. Gunzenhauser has become well known internationally for his recordings, numbering over sixty, including a critically acclaimed complete cycle of the DvoÅ™ák symphonies with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra.