after leaving the saarbrücken radio symphony orchestra, stern founded the iris orchestra in germantown, tennessee, which specializes in playing american contemporary music. beyond his work with iris, he frequently appeared throughout north america as a guest conductor of many symphony orchestras, including a series of concerts at the new york philharmonic in the summer of 2001, the chicago symphony orchestra, the philadelphia orchestra, the pittsburgh symphony, the saint louis symphony orchestra, the atlanta symphony, the houston symphony, the baltimore symphony, the toronto symphony, ottawa's national arts centre orchestra, the cincinnati symphony orchestra, the montreal symphony orchestra, the indianapolis symphony orchestra, and washington, d.c.'s national symphony orchestra. he also began regular appearances at the aspen music festival. in september 2001, stern led the vienna radio symphony on a tour of china.