Curtis Stewart embodies a distinctly contemporary vision of the classical violinist today. On stage and off, he operates with a directness that resists polish for its own sake, favouring instead a sense of immediacy and responsibility. As a violinist and composer in equal measure, with education central to his work, he treats classical music as something to be actively made, not simply handed down.
As a violinist, Stewart moves fluently between repertoire, improvisation and newly written music, often blurring the distinction between interpretation and authorship. As a composer, he is drawn to projects that place music in dialogue with lived experience and history, asking performers and listeners to engage attentively.
The current season finds Stewart active across a wide range of settings, from solo and chamber performances to large-scale orchestral projects. Among his many projects is the world premiere of I wouldn’t stop there: in the words of a KING, commissioned by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and conducted by music director Eric Jacobsen on 16 and 17 January in Norfolk and Newport News, in Virginia’s Hampton Roads region.
Written for chorus and chamber orchestra, the piece is inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic ‘Mountaintop’ speech, delivered on 3 April 1968, the day before his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. Stewart spoke to US correspondent Thomas May about compositional process, the physicality of sound and the responsibilities he associates with making music today…..
