ON THIS DAY

Today is VC Artist Stephen Waarts’ 28th Birthday!

July 15, 2024

2 MIN READ

He is a former major prize winner at the Spohr, Sarasate, Montreal, Menuhin, and Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competitions

American-Dutch VC Artist Stephen Waarts was born on this day 28 years ago.

Stephen is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Aaron Rosand, and a graduate of the Kronberg Academy where he studied with Mihaela Martin.

In 2015, Waarts was awarded the Mozart Gesellschaft Dortmund scholarship following his appearance at the Krzyżowa-Music Festival, as well as also being a major prize winner at the 2015 Queen Elisabeth Competition. In March 2017, Stephen was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, and in 2019 the International Classical Music Awards Orchestra Award by the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra.

He has performed with orchestras including the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Cape Town Philharmonic, Slovak Philharmonic, Luzerner Sinfonieorcheste, Dresden Philharmonie, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Konzerthausorchester, and Kansas City Symphony. Recent festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, New York, and the Marlboro Festival.

This 2023/24 season, Waarts will make his debut with the Fort Worth Symphony performing Beethoven's Violin Concerto under the baton of Robert Spano, Berner Symphonieorchester performing Mozart Violin Concerto no. 5 with Dalia Stasevska, and Donnacha Dennehy’s Violin Concerto with Killian Farrell and the Meininger Hofkapelle. Further dates include concerts with Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and Aziz Shokhakimov as part of Settimane Musicali Ascona, and Armenian State Symphony Orchestra performing Khachaturian Violin Concerto.

He currently performs on an 1868 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin.