“From the first note of Stephen Waarts’ Brahms G Major Sonata I was hooked, and within a few bars I was moved to tears.”
The Strad
Stephen Waarts’ innate and poetic musical voice has established him as a firm favourite with audiences across the globe. In the 2025/26 season, Waarts makes his debut with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Timothy Ridout under conductor Mark Wigglesworth, and with West-Virginia Symphony performing Brahms Double Concerto with cellist Hayoung Choi, conducted by Maurice Cohn. He will also return to Wigmore Hall, Festspiele Mecklenberg-Vorpommern, Verbier Festival and Meininger Hofkapelle performing Ligeti Concerto with Killian Farrell.
Highlights of recent seasons include appearances with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, City of Birmingham Symphony, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Oregon Symphony, Berner Symphonieorchester, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Fort Worth Symphony, and Orchestre de Picardie and, with conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Andras Schiff, Marin Alsop, Hannu Lintu, Constantinos Carydis, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Dalia Stasevska, Robert Spano, Maxime Pascal, Markus Stenz, Elim Chan and Thomas Ades.
Stephen Waarts gave an outstanding debut at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. In a fine program of Beethoven, Bartok, Ravel and Waxman. . .
The Washington PostCritical Acclaim
Stephen Waarts’ high style made us treasure the invention in the miniatures Salut d’amour and La capricieuse
The double concerto in A minor op. 102 by Brahms then achieved reference quality with the somnambulistic interacting soloists Stephen Waarts, who stood in for an unwell Janine Jansen, and Steven Isserlis. Rarely has one heard the piece so light-footed, elegant and full of sentiment.
When he begins to play, he burns with expressive fire and tonal vitality.
