Santa Cruz Symphony - Performing Arts Monterey Bay

"Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings opened the concert with quiet contemplation...a subdued mood that was reinforced by clean attacks and excellent intonation throughout. The long melodic lines were balanced for utmost clarity.

The Santa Cruz Symphony strings showed their maturity and skill in the final work, Serenade for Strings in C by Tchaikovsky…The orchestra achieved a fullness of sound that was gratifying to hear. The Waltz movement was elegantly played. The high point of the performance was the third movement, Elegy, delivered with heartfelt phrasing and warm sound. A high level of performance marked this concert throughout."

Music review: Santa Cruz Symphony charms audiences with youthful exuberance - Santa Cruz Sentinel

"Adventurous programming is what Santa Cruz Symphony maestro Daniel Stewart is bringing to the area and, judging by the audience's rapturous ovation, the audience is lapping it up.

In the fall of 2012, Stewart was appointed conductor of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and working closely with these outstanding artists at the beginning of their careers has enabled him to bring them to Santa Cruz. Earlier this year Chinese baritone 25-year-old Yunpeng Wang gave a thrilling rendition of Mahler's "Songs of a Wayfaring Lad." This time Stewart brought soprano Ying Fang who delighted the audience in Bach's "Wedding Cantata" and the "Bachiana Brasileira No. 5" by Villa-Lobos. Fang was able to seamlessly transition from Baroque to 20th century music in the twinkling of an eye. What supreme artistry!

Stewart kept a good balance, graceful and elegant as befits this charming depiction of young love.  

The orchestral soloists responded well to the assertive conducting of maestro Stewart who thanked each member of the orchestra individually on stage at the end of the concert in a gesture indicative of his close relationship to this orchestra which continues to grow and flourish."

Santa Cruz Symphony: Dreams and Visions at the Mello Center - Peninsula Reviews

"The Santa Cruz Symphony under the baton of its Director Daniel Stewart programmed three of the most interestingly diverse works one can recall. Concert number two “Dreams and Visions” featured soprano Ying Fang, yet another bright shinning star from the Metropolitan Opera Company.

Fang’s wonderful mastery and impressive range blended with the cellos to create a passionate musical aura that hovered over the audience like incense filled smoke. All of this was flawlessly balanced and blended by Stewart.

An awesome performance in all respects that was rewarded by a rousing standing ovation!"

Santa Cruz Symphony: Dreams and Visions - Performing Arts Monterey Bay

"Lovely…dreamy and passionate. The performance was a delight to hear. The Santa Cruz Symphony under Daniel Stewart performed with virtuosity and skill."

Santa Cruz Symphony, Oct 5 - Performing Arts Monterey Bay

"But credit goes as much to Daniel Stewart whose vision of the piece was not short of revelatory. One standout of Stewart’s conducting style is the sharp contrast of articulation between rhythmically charged passages and adjacent lyrical ones. Not only does he have a clear idea in mind but he communicates it equally well. Everything in this performance made sense… the finale, that sui generis miracle of counterpoint, was nothing short of breathtaking"

Santa Cruz Symphony Begins its 2014-2015 Season on a note of excellence - Peninsula Reviews

"Maestro Stewart balanced and blended the orchestral ensemble well with the piano assuring that the piano was both prominent as soloist as well as part of the overall texture. It became apparent there was exact precision in the integration between the images, the motivic processes and harmonic textural orchestration. Moments of chaotic, opaque textures became glued together and then liquidated into bright more tranquil moments under Stewart’s direction. This performance received a deserved standing ovation by the supportive audience!"

Review: Santa Cruz Symphony Final Concert — Renewal - Peninsula Reviews

"The Santa Cruz Symphony under the direction of charismatic Music Director Daniel Stewart presented an afternoon of beautifully performed sacred music. 

A word of professional praise is well deserved for the marvelous orchestra whose musical, technical and artistic abilities under the keen ear of Maestro Daniel Stewart have been simply awesome!"

Review: Symphony closes season with reverent performance of Mozart - Santa Cruz Sentinel

"There was a sense of reverence in the performance on Saturday evening that's not easy to achieve in the stark setting of the Civic auditorium.

He showed himself to not only be at ease in this situation but, in conducting without a score, illustrated his deep and secure knowledge of the works: A most successful conclusion to an enterprising and enjoyable season of varied music."

Announcement: Santa Cruz County Symphony Announces 2014/2015 Season - Times Publishing Group Inc.

"After firmly establishing his reputation, Maestro Daniel Stewart announced an exciting second season with the Santa Cruz County Symphony. The Maestro’s unique programming and inspirational conducting style has endeared him to both musicians and concertgoers, who have been attending in numbers never before seen in the organization’s 56-year history. He’s shaking things up and making classical music accessible to all types of people."

Review: Santa Cruz Symphony - Dance Prisms - Peninsula Reviews

"The orchestra players paid keen attention to every nuance Stewart cued in realizing the colorful orchestration Stravinsky employed in his Pulcinella Suite. The work proceeded with delicate dynamic balance, flawless phrasing and virtuosity by the wind, brass and string players throughout the entire piece."

Review: Evening of Comic Opera from the Met and Juilliard - New York Times

"For each of the three performances of this program, Mr. Levine is turning one work (a different one each night) over to Daniel Stewart, a young conductor in the Met’s training program. This was his night to conduct “Mavra,” and he drew colorful playing from the orchestra."

Review: “Immortal Love” at the Mello Center - Peninsula Reviews

"Arguably, the Santa Cruz County Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Stewart has now developed into the finest musical ensemble South of San Francisco and North of Los Angeles. The boundary line that separates these fine world class orchestras is on the verge of shifting from microscopic to invisible."

Review: Outstanding concert - Performing Arts Monterey Bay

"The audience was gobsmacked; you could hear the gasps of people starting to breathe again. Maestro Daniel Stewart has shown how great an orchestra like the Santa Cruz Symphony can be. Clearly, he’s the real deal…..the quality of great music here is almost beyond belief."

Review: Symphony masterfully explores the depths of tragic love - Santa Cruz Sentinel

"The orchestra was in top form: I have not heard such beautiful playing from these low strings, such precision of entries from the woodwinds and such warmth from the brass….I felt an honesty of expression emanating from the stage and wrapping the appreciative audience in the folds of its embrace."

Review: Santa Cruz Symphony - Fate and Fantasy at the Mello

"Perhaps the most impressive aspects of this afternoon’s concert were the crystal clear textures, the impressive dynamic control and the spirited performance evident in all three works.

The concert ended and the standing packed-house demanded no less than four appropriate curtain calls!"

Review: Santa Cruz Symphony Season Opening Concerts - Peninsula Reviews

On Saturday, October 5 at the Civic Center, the Santa Cruz County Symphony under the direction of the long awaited, newly appointed Music Director Daniel Stewart, opened its 2013-14 Season. The bottom line is Stewart far exceeded all expectations with a monumental opening concert! 

This concert marked the sixth work I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing under the baton of Maestro Stewart. All six were performed without a score, which obviously tells you about his preparation. I would like to add the orchestra never sounded better.

Interview: Santa Cruz Good Times

 “The idiomatic explosion over the last 100 years of different types of music and different ways we can share it and listen to it is amazing,” says Stewart. “It’s like we’re in the midst of the most unprecedented musical renaissance of all time and still coming to grips with the mass spectrum of what’s out there. Something that’s so exciting to me is what a major misnomer ‘classical music’ is because it’s not any one style at all. It’s a collection of styles from 400-plus years of different idioms and traditions that classical musical distills down to their essence and weaves into a new language. That language is always evolving and incorporating every other type of music.”

Interview: The Muse Santa Cruz

“You’re working with 50 to 120 consummate artists,” he said. “They’re athletes. They’re poets. They’re historians. They’re scholars. They’re responsible for 400 years of stylistic subtleties and I’m just madly in love with every little detail about playing great music, just as they are.”

Announcement: Santa Cruz County Symphony Selects Daniel Stewart as new Music Director - Times Publishing Group

The moment the classical music community of Santa Cruz County has been waiting for has finally arrived!  After an exciting season of 10 audition concerts featuring five talented conductors, thousands of painstakingly tallied surveys from the audience and orchestra members, a clear and resounding winner has emerged – a conductor whose thrilling performance has created enormous buzz and earned the support of the overwhelming majority of concert-goers and musicians as well as the Symphony’s board and administration.  The Santa Cruz County Symphony Association is now pleased to announce that Daniel Stewart has been selected as the new Maestro of the Santa Cruz County Symphony.

Announcement: Santa Cruz County Symphony names new maestro - Santa Cruz Sentinel

SANTA CRUZ -- A new maestro has been chosen for the Santa Cruz County Symphony, a conductor and violist whose work has touched major orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the St. Louis Symphony and the Atlanta Symphony.

Daniel Stewart was chosen to lead the local group after the symphony board conducted an extensive search that included 10 audition concerts and thousands of painstakingly tallied surveys from audience and orchestra members.