Praised for “combining omnivory and brilliance” (The New York Times), six-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated violinist and composer Curtis Stewart translates stories of American self-determination to the concert stage. Tearing down the facade of “classical violinist,” Stewart is in constant pursuit of his musical authenticity, treating art as a battery for realizing citizenship. As a solo violinist, composer, Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra, professor at The Juilliard School, and member of award-winning ensembles PUBLIQuartet and The Mighty Third Rail, he realizes a vision to find personal and powerful connections between styles, cultures, and musics. He was awarded a 2025 Sphinx Medal of Excellence in recognition of extraordinary leaders in the classical music field who are transforming lives while addressing systemic obstacles within Black and Latino communities.
Stewart's 2025-2026 season includes his first public performance of Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade with the National Philharmonic Orchestra; the world premiere of his I wouldn't stop there: in the words of a KING by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra; the commissioning of new American Caprices by American Public Media and Juilliard Pre-College; a performance of GRAMMY®-Nominated Of Love., presented by Seattle Symphony’s Octave 9 series; Seasons of Change with Sybrite 5 in New York City; appointments as the Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s 2025-2026 Joyce C. Willis Artist in Residence and Composer-in-Residence at URI Guitar Festival; and more.
In the summer of 2025, Stewart released a solo album, Seasons of Change—Stewart’s own recomposition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which incorporates audio interviews from unhoused individuals and serves as the frame for an Afrofuturist meditation on climate change, class, and the nature of digital memory, on Bright Shiny Things. Later that summer, Stewart was featured as soloist on an album of world premiere orchestral recordings by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor on AVIE Records, performed by the National Philharmonic under Michael Repper. Stewart’s works Drill and Double Down were also featured on Sphinx Virtuosi’s summer 2025 album, American Mirror, out with Deutsche Grammophon.
In his 2024-2025 season, Stewart’s performances included appearances at the Music in the Morning series in Vancouver; at his program, The American Recital, at Princeton University alongside masterclasses with students; in Bernstein's Serenade with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra; and with Mak Grgic at the St. Louis Classical Guitar concert season. He also held residencies at Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Cleveland Institute of Music, and served as Resident Artist at Kaufman Music Center, during which he performed in the world premieres of his own American Caprices and Seasons of Change with the Gateways Festival Orchestra at Eastman School of Music and The Kaufman Center’s Merkin Hall.
Among many others, Stewart’s compositions have recently been featured by the Sphinx Virtuosi, which performed his Drill on a nationwide tour with Stewart as the group’s Composer-in-Residence; the American Composers Orchestra, which commissioned his Embrace as part of New Virtuoso: Borders and premiered it at Carnegie Hall; and by violin and cello duo Catherine Cho and Amy Sue Barston in a new work commissioned by Juilliard Prep. Stewart has also been commissioned to compose new solo, chamber, and orchestral works by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall’s Play/USA, Seattle Symphony, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, the New York Festival of Song, Newport Classical Festival, the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Eastman Cello Institute, Orlando Philharmonic, The Knights, La Jolla Music Society, Sybarite5, members of the New York Philharmonic, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, and more. He composed The Famous People, five recompositions of Dvorák’s Slavonic Dances, for a premiere by violinist Gil Shaham with the Virginia Symphony in March 2023, followed by a performance by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2024.
As a soloist, Curtis Stewart has been presented by Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cal Performances, Washington Performing Arts, Virginia Arts Festival, The Juilliard School, and the 2022 GRAMMY® Awards, among many others. He has made special appearances with Los Angeles Opera and singer-songwriter Tamar Kali; as curator and guest soloist with Anthony Roth Costanzo and the New York Philharmonic “Bandwagon,” touring performance installations from NYC’s Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, and Museum of Modern Art; to MTV specials with Wyclef Jean; and sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden with Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, and Seal.
The world premiere recording of Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra with the Experiential Orchestra on Bright Shiny Things was nominated for a 2025 GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. Both Stewart’s 2021 album of quarantined song cycles and art videos, Of Power (Bright Shiny Things), and his 2023 album, of Love.—a tribute to his late mother Elektra Kurtis-Stewart—were nominated for GRAMMY® Awards for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.
Curtis Stewart is a member of award-winning ensembles, PUBLIQuartet (Chamber Music America Visionary award, winner Concert Artist Guild, 2023 GRAMMY® Award Nomination) and The Mighty Third Rail (Best Music, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Comic Book Theater Festival). PUBLIQuartet’s album What Is American (Bright Shiny Things) was nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY® Award. He has held chamber music residencies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Sawdust, and made return appearances at the Newport, Detroit, Vision, NYC Winter Jazz Festivals. Curtis Stewart has worked with many of today's forward-thinking musicians, including Henry Threadgill, SilkRoad Ensemble, Jessie Montgomery, Alicia Hall-Moran and Jason Moran, Mark O’Connor, Julia Bullock, members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, Billy Childs, Alarm Will Sound, Linda Oh, JACK Quartet, members of Snarky Puppy, Don Byron, Matt Wilson, among many others.
An enthusiastic educator, Curtis Stewart teaches “Performance Practice of the Blues” and “Improvised Chamber Music” as well as regularly coaching Chamber Music at The Juilliard School; directs the Contemporary Chamber Music program at the Perlman Music Program; served on the board of Concert Artist Guild; conducted several orchestras and opera pit orchestras; and for ten years led all levels of music theory and string orchestra at the LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City. In 2022, he was named Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra, a national organization dedicated to the creation, celebration, performance, and promotion of orchestral music by diverse and innovative American composers.
Stewart was born into a musical family – his father is avant jazz tuba pioneer Bob Stewart and mother Elektra Kurtis, a soulful Greek jazz violinist – who formed the framework of his sound world through daring improvisation, rigorous Western classical training, and conceptual composition. Learn more at www.curtisjstewart.com.