Stephen Waarts

Stephen Waarts’ innate and individual musical voice has established him as a firm favourite with audiences. With a voracious appetite for repertoire, he has already performed more than 30 standard violin concertos, as well as rarely performed works, and he is a passionate chamber musician.

During the 2019/20 season Stephen Waarts makes his recital debut at the Wigmore Hall, London, with pianist Gabriele Carcano and works by Fauré, Szymanowski and Bartók. He returns to the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris with a solo recital featuring Paganini, Bach and Ysaÿe, and further recitals and chamber concerts include Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Carnegie Hall in New York.

He works under Sir András Schiff twice this season: performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Timothy Ridout and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe as part of the Kronberg Academy Festival; and in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He also debuts with the Staatskapelle Weimar in Munich’s Philharmonie am Gasteig, BBCScottish Symphony Orchestra under Shi-Yeon Sung, Orpheum Supporters Orchestra at the Zurich Tonhalle Maag under Howard Griffiths, and Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie in the Dresden Philharmonie.

In 2019 he was awarded the International Classical Music Awards Orchestra Award by the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and returns this season for a recital at the KKL Lucerne. Having won the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s soloists award in 2017 he returned there in both 2018 and 2019. He has also recently made his debuts at the Aspen Music Festival and Mostly Mozart Festival, New York, as well as with the Orchestre National de Belgique, Szczecin Philharmonic, Slovak Philharmonic and Cape Town Philharmonic.

In 2015 and 2017 Stephen Waarts was an active participant in the Kronberg Academy Festival, during which he took masterclasses with Mihaela Martin and Christian Tetzlaff. 2017 and 2019 he also performed at the Kronberg Academy Festival. In 2018 he took part in Chamber Music Connects the World. From 2016 to 2021 he has studied at Kronberg Academy with Mihaela Martin. From March 2021 until summer 2023 he was a fellow of Kronberg Academy.