About
Stephen Waarts’ innate and individual musical voice is establishing him as a firm favourite with audiences. With a voracious appetite for repertoire, Stephen has already performed over thirty standard, as well as rarely performed, violin concertos and is a passionate chamber musician.
Forthcoming highlights include a return to the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Philharmonie Zuidnederland as well as debuts with Orchestre National de Belgique, Szczecin Philharmonic, Slovak Philharmonic, Cape Town Philharmonic and Oulu Symphony. Stephen will perform with Martin Helmchen as part of the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester’s concert series at Mount Pilatus; he will give both recital and chamber concerts as part of his 2018 Verbier residency at Schloss Elmau, collaborate with András Schiff during the pianist’s 2018/19 residency at the Berlin Konzerthaus, and perform with Tabea Zimmermann at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. Stephen will also give recitals in Japan, France, Italy and Belgium.
Stephen has recently appeared at the Lincoln Center as part of the 2018 Mostly Mozart Festival, made his debuts with the hr-Sinfonieorchester under Christoph Eschenbach, Kansas City Symphony under David Zinman, Tampere Philharmonic, and Munich Symphony Orchestra. In 2017, Stephen made his New York concerto debut with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, as part of the Young Concert Artists’ annual gala, which received critical acclaim in both the New York Times and The Strad. He has made highly successful debut recitals at the Merkin Concert Hall, New York; Kennedy Center, Washington DC, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, the Louvre in Paris, Dubrovnik Summer Festival and Tonhalle Zürich.
In June 2018, Stephen recorded his debut recital album for Rubicon Classics with pianist Gabriele Carcano, featuring works by Schumann and Bartók – composers he champions – and the album will be released in November 2018. Stephen will also be collaborating on a Hindemith recording project with Christoph Eschenbach for Ondine Classics.
His prize-winning success at the 2015 Queen Elisabeth Competition – including securing the majority vote of the television audience – boosted international attention. In March 2017 he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. Following his debut at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in 2017, Stephen was awarded the 2017 soloist prize which will be presented in September 2018. In 2015, he was awarded the Mozart Gesellschaft Dortmund scholarship following his appearance at the Krzyżowa-Music Festival.
Stephen is currently at the Kronberg Academy studying under Mihaela Martin and recently graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute, Philadelphia where he studied under Aaron Rosand. Prior to this he worked with Itzhak Perlman at the Perlman Music Program and Li Lin at the San Francisco Conservatory. In 2013 he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York, aged just 17. He was also prize-winner at the 2013 Montreal International Competition and won first prize at the 2014 Menuhin Competition.