Bio

Canadian pianist Paul Stewart launched his career in 1981, appearing with the Toronto Symphony in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 (“…an overriding solidity and power…his playing had a brawniness which lent a particularly convincing air…” The Globe and Mail, Toronto).  Since then he has performed “from sea to sea” in Canada, the United States (including Carnegie Hall, New York and the Kennedy Centre, Washington), Mexico, the United Kingdom, and throughout South America, Europe and Asia.

In 1996, his British début in London’s Wigmore Hall was broadcast live by the BBC and a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra was heard throughout Russia and subsequently released on a bestselling CD (“…stunning…a spectacular performance of uncommon elegance and sympathy, a perfect balance between colour and architecture.”  American Record Guide).  “Stewart’s playing is most persuasive, revealing deep immersion in the score...the mix of intellect, emotion and technique seems well-nigh perfect.”  Fanfare).

Mr Stewart has performed as guest-soloist with major orchestras worldwide, with such conductors as Franz-Paul Decker, James DePreist, Charles Dutoit, Igor Golovchin, Gunther Herbig, Erich Kunzel and Pinchas Zukerman. In recital he has partnered such artists as Arlene Auger, James Ehnes, Maureen Forrester, Ben Heppner, Jessye Norman, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gil Shaham, and the Leipzig, Moscow and Prague String Quartets.

He is one of the few pianists worldwide to champion the neglected Russian composer, Nikolay Medtner (1880-1951), whose music he has performed on five continents including, in 2011, an historic all-Medtner recital in India at the palace of the Maharaja of Mysore, the composer’s patron.   A major 4-CD recording project for the Grand Piano label, encompassing Medtner’s Complete Piano Sonatas is currently in progress (Vol. 3 released in September, 2022).  Other recordings include music by Beethoven, Britten, Elgar, Godowsky, Honegger, Liszt, Phil Nimmons, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Schubert and Strauss, for ATMA, CBC-Musica Viva, Chandos, Marquis, Naxos and Palexa.

A “Bluenoser” from the town of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Paul Stewart began piano studies at the age of five.  His principal teachers include Tietje Zonneveld, Charles Reiner (himself a student of the legendary Dinu Lipatti), Kendall Taylor, Guido Agosti and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.  In addition to his active performing and recording career, he has been Professor of Piano at the Université de Montréal since 2001.