GRAMMY^® Award-winning conductor Stephen Stubbs (Best Opera Recording, 2015) returned to his native Seattle in 2006 as one of the world’s most respected lutenists, conductors, and Baroque opera specialists, having spent 30 years in Europe, and in 2014 was awarded the Mayor’s Arts Award for ‘Raising the Bar’ in his home city. Prior to his return, he was a professor at the Hochschule für Künste, Bremen.

In 2007 he established production company Pacific MusicWorks (PMW), reflecting his interest in both early music and contemporary performance. He has recently conducted Handel’s Messiah with the Seattle, Edmonton and Birmingham Symphony orchestras. His extensive discography includes well over 100 albums, many of which have received international acclaim and awards.

Stubbs is the Boston Early Music Festival’s (BEMF) artistic codirector and musical director alongside Paul O’Dette. As well as GRAMMY^® Award recognition, BEMF recordings have won two Echo Klassik awards and the Diapason d’Or de l’Année. In 2013 Stubbs was appointed senior artist-in-residence at the University of Washington School of Music.