Charles Stegeman

Charles Stegeman, violin, was born in Canada. He made his recital debut at age seven in Banff (Alberta, Canada) with Boris Roubakine (pianist of Hubay) and debuted as soloist with the Banff Festival Orchestra at age nine. He was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 13 where he earned his Bachelor's Degree by the age of 20, including academic coursework at prestigious Haverford College.

Stegeman continued his formal music education at the Juilliard School where he earned a Master's Degree in Music Performance and worked toward an Artist Diploma. Stegeman's teachers include Esther Glazer, Paul Stassevitch, Ivan Galamian, Nathan Milstein, Jaime Laredo, David Cerone, Paul Makanovitsky, Joseph Gingold, Dorothy Delay, Zvi Zeitlin, Joseph Fuchs, Stuart Canin, and Sally Thomas.

In the area of chamber music, he studied with Mischa Schneider (Budapest Quartet), Isadore Cohen, Manahem Pressler (Beaux Arts Trio), Felix Galimir, Michael Tree, David Soyer (Guarneri String Quartet), Donald McInnes, Janos Starker, William Primrose, Zara Nelsova, Ruggiero Ricci, and Zoltan Szekely to name only a few. He attended several International Summer Music Festivals such as the Music Academy of the West (Santa Barbara, CA), the Banff School of Fine Arts (Banff, Alberta), the Meadowmount School of Music (Westport, NY), the Ravel Festival (St. Jean de Luz, France), and the International Master Classes with Nathan Milstein (Zurich, Switzerland).

Stegeman has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in many countries including Canada with the Vancouver Symphony with Gerard Schwarz conducting, France with the Toulouse Orchestre Symphonique with Jan Pascal Tortellier conducting, RTB Orchestra in Belgium with Serge Baudo conducting, the U.S. with the Kansas City Symphony with Bill McLaughlin conducting, and with the New York Chamber Players in Gramercy Park also with Bill McLaughlin conducting, as well as in all the festivals he performs with currently. He is much sought after as a master class clinician to teach classes internationally at institutions such as El Systema, Venezuela, The Beijing Central Conservatory (Beijing, China) FEMUSC Brazil.

Stegeman has appeared as a Columbia Artist performer for 10 years with the Canterbury and Sartory Piano Trios with David Allen Wehr. Other chamber music collaborations include Cynthia Phelps and Carter Brey (Principal Violist and Cellist of the NY Philharmonic respectively), Zara Nelsova, Peter Salaff (Cleveland Quartet), Jennifer Langham, Gerome Lowenthal (The Juilliard School), Henri Temiyanka, Don McInnes, Ron Leonard (The Colburn School and former principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic), Nico Abondolo, Richard O'Neill, Paul Coletti, Timothy Cobb (Principal Bass of the Metropolitan Opera of NY), and the Takacs Quartet.

While working towards his Doctorate at the University of Michigan, Stegeman accepted a joint position with the University of Missouri at Kansas City and the Kansas City Symphony as Concertmaster and Artist in Residence. A winner of five national competitions and one international violin competition (CMC in Montreal), Mr. Stegeman averages approximately 50 concerts a year as Concertmaster, Chamber Musician, and Soloist in North America, Europe, South America, Asia, and The Caribbean.

Well known for his artistic vision in the creation of music festivals, Stegeman has founded, co-founded, or advised several festivals including the Western Slope Music Festival (Crested Butte, CO), the Sunflower Music Festival (Topeka, KS), Buzzards Bay Music Festival (Cape Cod, MA), and Music Fest Midwest (Kansas City, KS). He also serves as Concertmaster at international festivals such as the St. Barth's Music Festival in the French West Indies, the Music Academy of the West (2000–2003), the French/American Chamber Ensemble in the Cher Valley, France (1991–1997), the Canadian National Repertory Orchestra in Hamilton, Ontario, and the FEMUSC Festival in Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Stegeman has been involved in the raising of millions of dollars to support classical music at his festivals and serves on boards that promote chamber music and the musical arts.

He has performed for an estimated 4–5 million people on 4 continents and has averaged almost 60 concerts a year for the past 50 years.

Stegeman resides in Pittsburgh, where he chaired the string area at Duquesne University for 25 years and was Chair of the Performance Department for three years. He also holds the position of Concertmaster for the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Orchestras. In addition, Stegeman was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Director of Orchestral Instrumental Study at Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, CA) from 2001 to 2014 and is the Concertmaster of Andrea Bocelli's west-coast tours, a position he has enjoyed for the last 15 years.

Regularly heard on NPR, he plays a Nicolo Gagliano violin dated 1776 and an Arcus Cadenza carbon-fiber bow. He is married to Rachel Stegeman, an accomplished internationally heard violinist in her own right, and has four children Luke, Michael, Gabrielle, and Adam, and a Westie named Duncan.

• M.M., The Juilliard School
• B.M., Curtis Institute of Music

• International Violin Performance
• International Violin Teaching and Pedagogy
• Program Management and Development
• Festival Development and Direction
• Fundraising and Project Development