Stephen Upshaw
Key details:
- Department:
- Junior Guildhall
- Role:
- Viola Tutor
Biography
American violist Stephen Upshaw regularly appears in festivals around the world including the BBC Proms, Cheltenham, Lucerne, Brighton, Aix-en-Provence, Wien Modern and the Salzburg Chamber Music Festival. Much in demand as a chamber musician, he is a member of the award winning Solem Quartet and has also shared the stage with artists such as Tai Murray, Gary Hoffman, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Philippe Graffin, Jennifer Stumm and Garth Knox. Recent recital and chamber music engagements have taken him to Boston’s Jordan Hall, London’s Barbican and Wigmore Halls, Tokyo Opera City, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Vienna’s Konzerthaus.
A noted interpreter of contemporary music, Stephen is also a member of London’s Riot Ensemble, winners of the Ernst von Siemens Foundation Ensemble Prize, whose recent disc ‘Speak Be Silent’ was selected as one of New Yorker Magazine’s ‘Best Recordings of 2019’. He has worked closely with many of today’s leading composers, including John Adams, Thomas Adès, George Benjamin and Helmut Lachenmann. Expanding the repertoire of the viola through the commissioning of new music has always been a feature of Stephen’s work. He has taken part in over 300 world premieres including chamber music of Georg Haas and Sally Beamish (alongside the composer) and solo works of Mark Simpson, Michael Finnissy and Errollyn Wallen.
Stephen serves on the faculty at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Junior Department and Switzerland’s Lucerne Festival Academy where he also co-curates the annual ‘Festival Forward’.
In recent years, he has given masterclasses at institutions including the Royal Academy of Music, Cambridge University, Royal College of Music, Eton College, Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music (Poland), Royal College of Music Stockholm, Cardiff University, Wells Cathedral School, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Vanderbilt University, Liverpool University, University of Georgia and University of Michigan, among others. He was a featured guest on BBC Radio 3’s “This Classical Life” and his work has featured in the New York Times, Strad Magazine, Classical Music Magazine and Gramophone Magazine.