When he was 18 Stephen began his classical studies with Bruce Clausen in Vancouver and moved to Victoria where he spent his formative years studying with Dr. Alexander Dunn. While a student at UVic Stephen was able to study with Pepe Romero and was soon invited to perform with the Maestro. Stephen received his Master’s and went on the win the Canadian National Music Festival and perform with internationally recognized groups such as the Vancouver Cantata Singers with whom he performed Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Romancero gitano and received his CBC radio debut.
As a Master’s student, Stephen had been struggling with an arm injury and in 2006 had to begin a four year cessation of his classical performing activities. A musician through and through, Stephen quickly taught himself the basics of jazz and maintained a strong teaching studio. From there he performed with Jason Corbett and became one of the most sought after jazz acts in Victoria. The duo was the highest billed group in Victoria’s 2010 International JazzFest and they enjoyed dozens of performances a year while their recordings and performances were featured on national radio, CBC Radio 1 and 3, and local television shows.
In 2011 Stephen received a fulltime doctoral teaching fellowship to resume his classical studies at UNT with Tom Johnson. While a student in Texas, Stephen was able to compete internationally and received top prizes dozens of times. Notably he was a finalist in the Boston GuitarFest International Competition, the International Guitar-Festival Iserlohn, the Montreal International Guitar Competition, the University of Texas International Guitar competition, and the Boulder International Guitar Competition. He won first prize at international competitions held by Indiana University, Texas A&M, University of Lousiville, Middle Tennessee State University, and the Florida Guitar Foundation.
At UNT Stephen became one of only a handful of guitarists to perform Kazuhito Yamashita’s transcription of Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky.
Stephen developed a deep love of early music at UNT and began performing on theorbo, baroque guitar, lute, and cittern under the guidance of Julliard professor Daniel Swenberg. He was also able to study with Paul Leenhouts, Director of Early music at UNT and UN Lifetime Achievement recipient, and eventually form the duo In villam columbae. The two have composed and commissioned new works and made numerous arrangements for the surprisingly successful combination of guitar and recorder.
Stephen’s jazz and continuo experience has established him as a strong chamber musician and he enjoys an incredibly diverse array of chamber music performances. From medieval songs, to early Baroque Opera, Bach Cantata’s, Mozart Arias, Schubert songs, through to flamenco, Jaco Pastorius, Frank Zappa, and music from the Final Fantasy series.
Stephen recently recorded an album with renowned audio specialist Drew Henderson which will be released in summer 2020. After that he has a recording of Regondi planned and following that perhaps will record a certain piano suite by a certain Russion composer. Stay tuned!