Stephen Waarts, who initially studied both piano and violin, went on study at the San Francisco Conservatory under Lin Li and in New York under Itzhak Perlman. He currently attends the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he is taught by Aaron Rosand. He won the International Louis Spohr Competition in 2011; in 2013, he was Second Laureate of the Montreal International Musical Competition and won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He won First Prize in the Menuhin Competition in Texas in 2014. He has worked with a number of orchestras, including the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Navarra Symphony Orchestra, the Redwood Symphony, the Prometheus Symphony Orchestra, and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center (Washington), Merkin Hall (New York), and the Louvre (Paris). He is also an eminent mathematician and has won national awards in that discipline.

Instrument : Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, loaned by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins

Teachers

Aaron Rosand: 9/2011-Present. Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA.
Li Lin: 4/2005-8/2011. San Francisco Conservatory - Preparatory Division, San Francisco, CA.
Alexander Barantschik, Concertmaster of San Francisco Symphony: 1/2009-8/2011. San Francisco, CA.
Elizabeth Blumenstock, Baroque violinist: 1/2009-8/2011. Oakland, CA.

Degrees

College: Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA 2011-Present
Music School: San Francisco Conservatory, Preparatory Division, San Francisco, CA: 2009-2011
High School: School for Independent Learners, Los Altos, CA: 2006-2011