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The Canadian pianist and composer, Stewart Goodyear, was born to a Trinidadian mother and British father. He never knew his father, as he passed away from cancer a month before Stewart was born. But he grew up with his father's LPs which included the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Santana in addition to L.v. Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Czechovski symphonies. He says that hearing L.v. Beethoven is what compelled him to be a classical artist. He was aware of the piano at age 3 and by 4 was playing by ear on a toy piano. After the family bought a full-size instrument, he took lessons and learned general music as a student at an all-boy Toronto choir school. He graduated from the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto when he was 15. There he studied with James Anagnoson, who subsequently became dean of the school. He obtained his Bachelor of Music degree from Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman, and Claude Frank. He attended Juilliard School in New York where he studied with Oxana Yablonskaya and earned his Master of Music degree in Piano Performance (1998-2000).
Proclaimed "a phenomenon" by the Los Angeles Times and "one of the best pianists of his generation" by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished young pianist as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, recitalist and composer. He has performed with with major orchestras of the world, including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra; Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and NHK Symphony Orchestra.
Known as an improviser and composer, Stewart Goodyear has been commissioned by orchestras and chamber music organizations, and performs his own solo works. Last year (2019), he premiered his suite for piano and orchestra, Callaloo, with Kristjan Jarvi and MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig in Leipzig, and last summer, the Clarosa Quartet premiered his Piano Quartet commissioned by the Kingston Chamber Music Festival. He performed all 32 L.v. Beethoven Piano Sonatas in one day at Koerner Hall in Toronto, McCarter Theatre, Mondavi Center, AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, and Memorial Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio..
Stewart Goodyear is a contemporary classical musician who improvises his cadenzas when performing concertos from the Classical period. He typically meditates for half an hour before performing. In addition, he has a few pre-concert rituals such as reading a pocket-sized biography on L.v. Beethoven or reviewing the cover to the Beatles’ album “With the Beatles” before performing Gershwin. He cites Leonard Bernstein as a particular influence. He says: “Bernstein is the classical musician of the 20th century I admire the most. He was inspired by all styles of music, and, just like L.v. Beethoven, he defied convention, created his own music, and communicated to audiences of all demographics.”
Stewart Goodyear's discography includes L.v. Beethoven's Complete Piano Sonatas (which received a Juno nomination for Best Classical Solo Recording in 2014) and Diabelli Variations for the Marquis Classics label, Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto No. 1 and Grieg's Piano Concerto, and Sergei Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos No. 2 and 3, both released to critical acclaim on the Steinway and Sons label. His S. Rachmaninov recording received a Juno nomination for Best Classical Album for Soloist and Large Ensemble Accompaniment. Also for Steinway and Sons is his recording of his own transcription of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker (Complete Ballet), which was released October 2015 and was chosen by the New York Times as one of the best classical music recordings of 2015. For Sono Luminus, he recorded an album, entitled "For Glenn Gould", which combines repertoire from Glenn Gould's USA and Montreal debuts. His recordings for Orchid Classics include an album of Ravel piano works, and an album of Goodyear's Callaloo Suite, his Piano Sonata, and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. His newest recording are the complete L.v. Beethoven piano concertos, which was planned to ne released on Orchid Classics in the spring 2020.
Highlights of the 2020 season are a USA tour with Chineke!, his debut at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, performances with the Aalborg and Phoenix Symphonies, and the world premieres of his cello concerto and piano quintet by the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Penderecki String Quartet respectively. |
