Daniel Stewart is a conductor, violist, composer, and educator, currently in his 12th season as Music Director of the Santa Cruz Symphony, where his leadership and programming have earned international acclaim and attracted world class collaborators such as Yuja Wang, Berlin Philharmonic 1st Concertmaster Noah Bendix-Balgley, and over 30 stars from the Metropolitan Opera.
He has conducted many leading orchestras including the Metropolitan Opera, Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Hessischer Rundfunk and Frankfurt Opern, Boston Ballet, and the New World Symphony.
As viola soloist, principal violist, and chamber musician, he has performed in over 40 countries, on many of the world's great stages, including Carnegie Hall, the Musikverein, Het Concertgebouw, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Mariinsky, Teatro Colón, Sydney Opera House, and Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.
He recently completed a five year tenure as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. Past positions as an educator include four years of co-directing the Metropolitan Opera's Young Artist Development Program, and coaching the opera departments and orchestras of the Juilliard School, Curtis Institute, and Aspen Music Festival. As a guest lecturer he has given presentations at schools including Stanford, the SF Conservatory of Music, and UCSC, and has been a featured artist at OpenAl Forum. He holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, the Indiana University School of Music, and in 2010 was awarded the Aspen Music Festival's Conducting Prize.