Charles Stegeman, a violinist, was born in Canada. He made his debut at the age of seven at Banff (Alberta, Canada) with Boris Roubakine (Hubay pianist) and made his debut as a soloist with the Banff Festival orchestra at the age of nine. He received a full scholarship to attend the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 13, where he earned his bachelor’s degree at age 20, including academic courses at the prestigious Haverford College.
Stegeman continued his formal music education at the Juilliard School, where he obtained a master’s degree in musical performance and worked to obtain an artist degree. Stegeman’s teachers include Esther Glazer, Paul Stasevitch, Ivan Galamian, Nathan Milstein, Jaime Laredo, David Cerone, Paul Makanovitsky, Joseph Gingold, Dorothy Delay, Zvi Zeitlin, Joseph Fuchs, Stuart Canin and Sally Thomas.
In the chamber music area, he studied with Mischa Schneider (Budapest Quartet), Isadore Cohen, Manahem Pressler (Beaux Arts Trio), Felix Galimir, Michael Tree, David Soyer (Guarneri String) Quartet), Donald McInnes, Janos Starker, William Primrose, Zara Nelsova, Ruggiero Ricci and Zoltan Szekely, to name just a few. He participated in several international summer music festivals, such as the Music Academy of the West (Santa Barbara, CA), the Banff School of Fine Arts (Banff, Alberta), the Meadowmount School of Music (Westport, NY), the Ravel Festival (St. Jean de Luz, France), and the international master classes with Nathan Milstein (Zurich, Switzerland).
Stegeman appeared as a soloist with orchestras in many countries, including Canada with the Vancouver Symphony with Gerard Schwarz leading, France with the Toulouse Orchester Symphony with Jan Pascal Tortellier leading, RTB Orchestra in Belgium with Serge Baudo driving, the US with the Kansas City Symphony with Bill McLaughlin conducting, and with the New York Chamber Players in Gramercy Park also with Bill McLaughlin conducting, as well as in all the festivals in which it currently performs. He is highly sought after as a master class clinician to teach classes internationally at institutions such as El Systema, Venezuela, Beijing Central Conservatory (Beijing, China) Femusc Brazil.
Stegeman appeared as a Columbia Artist artist for 10 years with the Canterbury and Sartory Piano Trios with David Allen Wehr. Other chamber music collaborations include Cynthia Phelps and Carter Brey (main violist and Celliist of the NY Philharmonic respectively), Zara Nelsova, Peter Salaff (Cleveland Quartet), Jennifer Langham, Gerome Lowenthal (The Juilliard School), Henri Temiyanka, Don McInnes, Ron Leonard (The Colburn School and former chief cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic), Nico Abondolo, Richard O’Neill, Paul Coletti, Timothy Cobb (main bass of the Metropolitan Opera in NY) and the Takacs quartet.
While working for his PhD at the University of Michigan, Stegeman accepted a joint position with the University of Missouri in Kansas City and the Kansas City Symphony as ConcertMaster and resident artist. Winner of five national competitions and an International Violin Competition (CMC in Montreal), Mr. Stegeman has an average of approximately 50 concerts per year such as ConcertMaster, Chamber Musician and Soloist in North America, Europe, South America, Asia and the Caribbean.
Well known for his artistic vision in the creation of music festivals, Stegeman founded, co-founded or advised on several festivals, including the Western Slope Music Festival (Crested Butte, CO), the Sunflower Music Festival (Topeka, KS), Buzzards Bay Music Festival (Cape Cod, MA) and Music Fest Midwest (Kansas City, KS). He also serves as a concertmaster at international festivals such as the St. Barth’s Music Festival in the French West Indies, the Western Music Academy (2000–2003), the French/American Chamber Ensemble at Cher. Valley, France (1991–1997). ), the Canadian National Repertory Orchestra in Hamilton, Ontario, and the FEMUSC Festival in Santa Catarina, Brazil.
Stegeman has been involved in raising millions of dollars to support classical music at its festivals and acts on boards that promote chamber music and musical arts.
He has performed for about 4 to 5 million people on 4 continents and has had an average of nearly 60 shows a year in the last 50 years.
Stegeman resides in Pittsburgh, where he presided over the rope area at Duquesne University for 25 years and was president of the Performance Department for three years. He also holds the post of Concertmaster for the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Orchestras. In addition, Stegeman was a distinguished visiting scholar and director of Orchestral Instrumental Study at Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, CA) from 2001 to 2014 and is the concertmaster of the tours From the west coast of Andrea Bocelli, a position he has enjoyed in the last 15 years.
Heard regularly at NPR, he plays a Nicolo Gagliano violin dated to 1776 and an Arcus Cadenza carbon fiber arc. He is married to Rachel Stegeman, an internationally recognized violinist in his own right, and has four children Luke, Michael, Gabrielle and Adam, and a Westie named Duncan.