Stephen Stubbs


Stephen Stubbs is a lutenist and music director and has been a leading figure in the American early music scene for nearly thirty years.
Born in Seattle, he studied harpsichord and composition at the University of Washington where, at the same time, he began playing the harpsichord and the lute. After graduation he moved to in England and Holland to study, and gave his debut concert in London's Wigmore Hall in 1976. From 1981 to 2013, Stubbs taught at the University of the Arts Bremen in Germany. In 2013, he became an artist in residence at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has performed extensively with his ensembles Tragicomedia and Teatro Lirico, and conducted baroque operas worldwide. He has recorded numerous albums with other famous ensembles like the Hilliard Ensemble and with Andrew Lawrence-King.
He moved back to Seattle in 2006. There he established the Seattle Academy of Baroque Opera, the Pacific MusicWorks early music performance series, and is an adjunct professor at Cornish College of the Arts. He is artistic co-director of the Boston Early Music Festival.
On February 8, 2015, Stubbs won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for: Charpentier: La descente d'Orphée aux enfers H 488 & La Couronne de fleurs H.486, Paul O'Dette & Stephen Stubbs, conductors; Aaron Sheehan; Renate Wolter-Seevers, producer. In 2013, he recorded : Charpentier’s Actéon H.481, La Pierre Philosophale H.501 and in 2019 Les Plaisirs de Versailles H.480, Les Arts Florissants H.487.

Selected Recordings