Stephen Stubbs
A leading figure in the performance of early music, Stephen Stubbs has helped re-establish the art of the plucked string continuo instruments of the Baroque. With existing early music ensembles and ensembles he's founded, he has performed and recorded major productions of Baroque operas.
Stubbs was born in 1951 in Seattle. He was raised with an innate love of music and music-making. Initially, his passions lay equally in early music and the 20th century avant-garde. He attended the University of Washington, studying harpsichord and composition. At this time, he began to specialize in the principal Baroque accompanying instruments, the harpsichord and lute. These specialties led him to further study in Europe and a 1976 debut at London's Wigmore Hall. By this point, Stubbs' career in early music -- both as an active scholar and a performing musician -- was in the ascendant. His research and performances on the lute, citarrone, and Baroque guitar helped re-establish these plucked continuo instruments within the soundscape of Baroque music; in 1980, they also landed Stubbs a post as professor of lute (and of performing practice) at the Hochschule der Künste, Bremen.
1987 was a watershed year in Stubbs' life and in the history of the early music revival. For that year's Bruges Early Music Festival, Stubbs directed a production of Stefano Landi's opera La Morte d'Orfeo. The success of this production launched Stubbs as one of the most called-upon directors of early opera performances and spun off the highly successful ensemble Tragicomedia. The group at its outset consisted of Stubbs and two others of the best early continuo players in the world: harpist Andrew Lawrence-King and lirone virtuoso Erin Headley. Tragicomedia formed the core of major productions of all three surviving operas of Monteverdi, Francesca Caccini's Ruggiero, Sartorio's L'Orfeo, Landi's La Morte d'Orfeo, and the opera Orfeo of Luigi Rossi. Their performances have included every major European and American early music festival and have used collaborations with such performers as Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants, and a new partnership with lutenist Paul O'Dette (who later joined the group). The ensemble received an Edison Award in 1994 for a Monteverdi madrigal program.
In 1996, Stubbs founded the late-Baroque orchestra Teatro Lirico. The first release for Teatro Lirico was Love and Death in Venice on Virgin Veritas. Stubbs began co-directing operas for the Boston Early Music Festival in 1997; the first, was a production of Rossi's Orfeo. He was later named artistic co-director for the festival in 2003, once again working alongside O'Dette. In 2006, Stubbs moved back to Seattle, and the following year created a new program called Pacific MusicWorks, which incorporates early music with contemporary performance. The group's first performance was a multimedia production of Monteverdi's The Return of Ulysses, staged by William Kentridge. The ensemble's first album, Total Eclipse: Music for Handel's Tenor, featuring tenor Aaron Sheehan, was released on Naxos in 2019.
Stubbs has recorded as a solo lutenist and conductor for the CPO, ATMA Classique, and Teldec labels, among others. His 2014 album Charpentier: La Descente d'Orphée aux Enfers; La Couronne de Fleurs won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording, and his 2019 release Charpentier: Les Plaisirs de Versailles; Les Arts Florissants was nominated for the same.
© Timothy Dickey & Keith Finke /TiVo
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Teatro Lirico
Stephen Stubbs, Maxine Eilander, Erin Headley, Milos Valent
Classical - Released by ECM New Series on Jan 24, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
HUME: Captain Humes Poeticall Musicke, Vol. 1
Paul Audet, Francis Colpron, Regent Poirier, Stephen Stubbs, Daniel Taylor, Voix Humaines, Les
Chamber Music - Released by Naxos on Dec 8, 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stylus Phantasticus
Tekla Cunningham, William Skeen, Stephen Stubbs, Maxine Eilander, Henry Lebedinsky
Chamber Music - Released by Reference Recordings on Aug 20, 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Handel : Almira, HWV 1
Opera - Released by CPO on Jan 3, 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Lovesick
Randall Scotting, Stephen Stubbs
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Signum Records on Feb 10, 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Love Duets
Arion Orchestre Baroque, Stephen Stubbs, Suzie Leblanc, Daniel Taylor
Classical - Released by ATMA Classique on Nov 1, 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Canticum Canticorum
Les Voix Baroques, Stephen Stubbs
Classical - Released by ATMA Classique on Jan 1, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Golden Age of the French Lute
Classical - Released by Challenge Classics on Jan 1, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lully: Thesee (Boston Early Music Festival)
Boston Early Music Festival Chorus
Classical - Released by CPO on Jan 1, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sonate Al Pizzico: Italian Duets for Plucked Strings
Stephen Stubbs, Maxine Eilander
Classical - Released by ATMA Classique on Apr 1, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Proensa
Paul Hillier, Stephen Stubbs, Andrew Lawrence-King, Erin Headley
Classical - Released by ECM New Series on Mar 1, 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kellner: 17 Auserlesene Lauten-Stücke
Classical - Released by CPO on Jul 1, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Amour cruel: Music for 2 Equal Viols
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Classical - Released by ATMA Classique on Feb 1, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Lute Works - BWV 995, BWV 998, BWV 1001
Classical - Released by ATMA Classique on Jan 1, 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
HUME: Captain Humes Poeticall Musicke, Vol. 2
Voix Humaines, Les, Stephen Stubbs, Paul Audet
Chamber Music - Released by Naxos on Dec 8, 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Total Eclipse: Music for Handel's Tenor
Aaron Sheehan, Pacific MusicWorks Orchestra, Stephen Stubbs
Classical - Released by Naxos on Apr 12, 2019
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Vivaldi: Suzie LeBlanc
Teatro Lirico, Stephen Stubbs, Suzie le Blanc
Classical - Released by Challenge Classics on Oct 4, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel's Harp
Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Stephen Stubbs, Maxine Eilander, Cyndia Sieden
Classical - Released by ATMA Classique on Aug 1, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Night Sessions
John Potter, Stephen Stubbs, The Dowland Project
Classical - Released by ECM New Series on Jun 21, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Time Stands Still
Randall Scotting, Stephen Stubbs
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Signum Records on Jan 12, 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Black is the Colour of My True Love's Hair (Arr. for Tenor and Lute by John Jacob Niles)
Randall Scotting, Stephen Stubbs
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Signum Records on Jan 26, 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo