Carolyn Stuart

Associate Professor of Violin and Chamber Music

Email: cstuart@usf.edu, carolynstu@gmail.com
Phone: (813) 974-2311

Carolyn Stuart is Associate Professor of Violin at University of South Florida, where she has been on the faculty since 1999. She is also the Director of Strings and Chamber Music at the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Italy, Artist-Faculty at Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, in Vermont, and recent Visiting Violin Professor at DePaul University School of Music. Her principal violin teachers have included Kevin Lawrence, Paul Kantor, and Mitchell Stern, and she earned degrees from The Juilliard School, University of Michigan, and Stony Brook University. Stuart’s recordings may be heard regularly on BBC and WQXR Playlists, and on Bridge, Gega New, Albany, Capstone, Glorious Pantheons, Ravello, and Blue Griffin labels.

Her violin playing has been described as “tonally resplendent and affectingly assured both stylistically and technically” (Fanfare Magazine) and she as a performer of "astonishing effectiveness, radiant inspiration, deep sensitivity, and colossal temperament" (Musical Horizons - Sofia), violinist Carolyn Stuart performs internationally as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has appeared at Carnegie, Merkin, and Steinway Halls in NYC, REDCAT in L.A., Katzen Arts Center in D.C., Salle Gaveau in Paris, the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, The Bethaniënklooster in Amsterdam, Royal College of Music in London, Pushkin House and Mansfield 22 in London, Salon Christophori in Berlin, American University in Athens, University of Toronto, Royal Academy of Music in Denmark, Royal Irish Academy of Music, Association Philomuses of Paris, Teatro del Sale in Florence, Incontro Sulla Tastiera in Vicenza, and the Zurich and Vincenza Conservatories. Festival appearances have included Green Mountain, Chautauqua, Interlochen, Garth Newel, Hot Springs, Pine Mountain, Killington, and internationally in the Netherlands – Peter de Gröte, Bulgaria – Salon des Arts, International Music Festival, and Sofia Music Weeks, and Italy – Terre d’Arezzo Toscana, Classicariano Avellino, Autunno Musicale Caserta.

For two decades Stuart has toured as a member of the Stuart-Ivanov Duo with pianist Svetozar Ivanov, often presenting recitals with unusual concert formats combining music with other art forms (documentary footage, art films, animation, poetry, short stories, paintings). Their critically acclaimed Gega New CD, Nikolai Roslavets: Short Works for Violin and Piano, dedicated to the rarely performed music of this repressed Soviet composer, is now being produced for DVD release as “The Armoire”.

As one of the four internationally acclaimed members of MoVE, Stuart is avidly commissioning and recording works with this innovative violin quartet. They have premiered works of leading composers such as Evan Chambers, Daniel Wohl, Jessica Meyer, Jonathan Berger, Seung-Won Oh, Tommy Dougherty, and Jordan Nelson. She has performed as soloist with the Sofia Philharmonic, premiering Victor Chouchkov’s Triple Concerto, which she also recorded with the Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra. Along with members of her clarinet trio, Qthree, she has recorded the premiere of Kati Agocs’ Song Cycle Imagination of Their Hearts on the CD, Ice Age and Beyond: Works by Canadian Women Composers and has recently premiered Evan K. Chambers’ quartet transcription of his epic orchestral work, The Old Burying Ground, for voice-violin-clarinet-piano. A devoted performer of Evan Chambers’ music, she has recorded a significant body of his chamber music for the Albany CD, Cold Water, Dry Stone: New Music with Traditional Roots. Her Bridge CD, American Flute Quintets, named “Critics Choice” by American Record Guide, features the world-premiere recording of Joan Tower’s Rising with preeminent flutist Carol Wincenc and the Green Mountain Chamber Music Players.