Warren Stewart

Artistic Director

Over the past two decades Warren Stewart has emerged as one of the most dynamic and engaging early music specialists in America. He has received critical praise for his innovative programming and the emotional intensity of his performances of an extraordinarily wide range of repertoire from William Byrd and Claudio Monteverdi to Terry Riley and Arvo Pärt. Through his work with Magnificat, Stewart has established a reputation for expressive and thought-provoking interpretations of standard repertoire and modern premieres of forgotten masterworks. He has prepared modern editions of numerous works and reconstructions of historic Roman and Lutheran liturgies.

With Magnificat, Stewart has appeared at the Berkeley Early Music Festival, the Music Before 1800 concert series, the Tropical Baroque Festival, Notre Dame University, and on the Seattle Early Music Guild and San Francisco Early Music Society concert series. He conducted and produced Magnificat's recording of Cavalieri's Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo for Koch International and was artistic director for Magnificat's recordings of the music of Chiara Margarita Cozzolani for Musica Omnia. For seven years Stewart also served as artistic director of the California Bach Society and has appeared as guest conductor with the San Antonio Symphony and the Sonoma County Bach Society, collaborated with the Kronos Quartet, and has served on the faculty of Sonoma State University.

Stewart studied cello with Paul Katz at the Eastman School of Music and Erling Bløndal-Bengtsson at the Royal Danish Music Conservatory, early music performance practice at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, and musicology at Stanford University. As a cellist he has performed with the American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Linde-Consort, Ensemble 415, and the Deutsche Handel-Solisten, and recorded for Musica Omnia, Harmonia Mundi, EMI/Angel, Koch International, and Cadenza Records.