Violinist Stephen Waarts, age 15, is a student at the School for Independent Learners in Los Altos. He is a scholarship student at the San Francisco Conservatory Preparatory Division, where he currently studies with his long-time violin teacher Prof. Li Lin and where he also studies composition. Since 2009 he has been a student of Alexander Barantschik, Concertmaster of the SF Symphony and he also receives regular instruction from Baroque violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock. His piano teacher is Irina Sharogradski.

Stephen regularly performs and competes in local and international events, playing solo with orchestras, chamber music ensembles, and giving recitals. In November 2010, he won first Prize in the 2010 International Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists, Junior Division, in Weimar Germany, and also a special award for the best interpretation of a romantic concerto in all divisions. In August 2010, he won first Prize in the International Summit Music Festival's Concerto competition (Junior Division) in New York. In April 2010, he won second Prize and the Ole Bull Prize in the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition for Young Violinists in Oslo. This immediately led to accolades from distinguished figures such as The Strad's editor Ariane Todes who wrote: "From the first note of his Brahms Sonata I was hooked, and within a few bars I was moved to tears. I don't have this response very often... and although it is possible to analyse it, perhaps it is better not to try...Music is at its best when it's below the belt like this... such an experience is so rare...." And leading music critic Michael White wrote in the UK Telegraph: "From the first bars... it was blindingly clear that this small boy... was something special... a soul."

In December 2009, Stephen performed in the U.S. National Public Radio show "From the Top" with pianist Christopher O'Riley. In June 2009, he soloed with a professional Russian orchestra in the Grand Closing Concert of Maestro Spivakov's festival "Moscow Meets Friends" in Moscow after winning an international invitation. In May 2009, he won First Prize in the 2009 KDFC Classical Star Search Competition. In November 2008, he performed in the American Fine Arts Festival's Gala Concert at Carnegie Hall in New York after winning first place in their international competition. Stephen has won numerous competitions in California as well, including the Grand Prize in the 2008 Mondavi Center Young Artists Competition and first prize in numerous orchestras' competitions.

In the summer of 2010, Stephen participated in the Intensive Violin Program headed by Aaron Rosand at the Summit Music Festival in New York and in the Perlman Music Program headed by Itzhak Perlman, also in New York. Between April 2008 and November 2010 Stephen performed ten complete concertos and three show pieces with sixteen orchestras, often multiple times. In Weimar, Germany, he performed with the professional Weimar Staatskapelle, and with the Chamber Orchestra of The Liszt School of Music in Weimar. At the Oslo Conservatory of Music, he performed with an orchestra of players from the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Barratt Due Music Institute. At Moscow State University, he performed with the Kostroma Symphony Orchestra. In California, he performed with the professional San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, with Symphony Parnassus, Redwood Symphony, Saratoga Symphony, Silicon Valley Symphony, Prometheus Symphony Orchestra, Solano Community Symphony, Winchester Orchestra, Diablo Symphony Orchestra, Palo Alto Philharmonic, YOSAC (Youth Orchestras of Southern Alameda County), and with the San Jose Youth Symphony.

In his free time he likes math, reading, drawing, and playing with his friends, and his younger sister and twin brother. Find more about Stephen at www.stephenwaarts.com