Stephen Stubbs, born 1951 in Seattle, has been engaged in music-making since early childhood. Parallel interests in new and pre-romantic music led him to take a degree in composition at University and to study the lute and harpsichord. Further years of study in Holland and England preceded his professional debut as lutenist at the Wigmore Hall, London in 1976. Since 1980 he has lived in North Germany where he is the professor for lute and performance practices at the Hochschule für Künste, Bremen. Over the past 25 years Stubbs has been professionally active as both lutenist and director. His ensembles Tragicomedia and Teatro Lirico have recorded well over 30 CDs and appeared at major festivals around the world. He has been invited to direct opera productions in Europe, the US, Canada, and Scandinavia. In 2003 he was named permanent artistic co-director, with Paul O’Dette, of the Boston Music Festival.

His recordings of solo lute include the music of J.S. Bach, S.L. Weiss, David Kellner and the Belgian lutenist Jaques St. Luc. With a recording of Bach”s Luteworks he has begun his work as a soloist with the ATMA label where he also appears as a director of the Monteverdi Vespers with Tragicomedia and Handel Love Duets with Ensemble Arion. With baroque harpist Maxine Eilander he has recorded Sonate al Pizzico, released on ATMA in 2004. To cultivate the singers and players of the next generation he has founded an opera workshop at the Hochschule in Bremen. 2005 will see the eighth annual meeting of this intensive week-long workshop called the “Accademia d’Amore” now for the first time in Seattle.