Press Room

Daniel Stewart joined the San Francisco Symphony as Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in the 2019–20 season. He also currently serves as music director of the Santa Cruz Symphony and has conducted the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Frankfurt Opera Orchestra, and Boston Ballet, among others.   
   
Recent highlights have included his debut with the San Francisco Symphony in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and a 10-year extension of his music directorship of the Santa Cruz Symphony. Under his artistic leadership, the Santa Cruz Symphony has seen unprecedented growth and earned a reputation for innovative programming, frequent collaborations with leading international artists, and attracting exceptional talent to its ranks.   
   
In 2012 the Metropolitan Opera appointed Mr. Stewart the first conductor of their Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. In 2013 he made his Lincoln Center debut in a Metropolitan Opera-produced concert of scenes by Stravinsky, Mozart, Donizetti, and Berlioz. During his tenure with the Metropolitan Opera, he coached singers and conducted soloists in a range of operatic repertory.   
  
A passionate advocate of contemporary music, Mr. Stewart’s close collaborative partners have included Esa-Pekka Salonen, Thomas Adès, Mason Bates, HK Gruber, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. His own compositions have received premieres at venues including the Aspen Music Festival, Tribeca New Music Festival, and Verbier Festival.  
   
A San Francisco native, Mr. Stewart is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied conducting with Otto-Werner Mueller. He has also studied with Michael Tilson Thomas, Simon Rattle, Christoph Eschenbach, and Alan Gilbert. In 2010 Mr. Stewart was awarded the Aspen Music Festival’s James Conlon conducting prize. He has concertized frequently as a viola soloist and served as principal violist of numerous ensembles including the New World Symphony, Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, and the Verbier Festival and Chamber Orchestras. He has recorded for EMI with Maxim Vengerov and toured extensively in more than 40 countries.