Stewart French is a classical guitarist focussing on performance and recording projects involving the development of new repertoire. Fascinated by how music evolves through the interaction of performers, composers and producers, Stewart splits his time between concerts, new composition projects, arrangements and recordings.
Most recently, he has worked with Tarik O'Regan, Paul Hillier, the National Chamber Choir of Ireland, Harmonia Mundi and Novello on a major new work for guitar and choir, Acallam na Senorach. Preceeding this, he worked closely with Joseph Finlay on a series of eight new works for solo guitar while working on his arrangements of Brahms and Mendelssohn piano works. He has also authored a new edition of Walton's Five Bagatelles for Guitar (c.f. The Walton Edition, vol. 20, Oxford University Press) based on research into the editorial process and is currently working on a suite of solo guitar pieces with Tarik O'Regan and a set of Beethoven arrangements.
Stewart holds a Master's degree from the University of Cambridge, a PGDip. from the Royal Academy of Music (where he was awarded the DipRAM - the institution's most prestigious performance award) and an ARCM from the Royal College of Music. He has recorded world premieres for Naxos, Universal, Collegium and Harmonia Mundi. Stewart has had live performances broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and RTE Radio 1 and has been involved in major collaborations with John Rutter, Tarik O'Regan, Paul Hillier, Jeremy Huw-Williams, the Choir of Clare College (Tim Brown) and Joseph Finlay. He has edited guitar pieces for Oxford University Press and Novello. Stewart also produces and engineers classical recordings for Draft Audio Production as well as editing for labels and artists such as Classic FM, Hyperion, Universal, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (John Wilson), Julian Lloyd-Webber and the Manchester Camerata (Douglas Boyd).