STEPHEN PRUTSMAN
Moving easily from classical to jazz to world music styles as a pianist and composer, Stephen Prutsman continues to explore and seek common ground and relationships in the music of all cultures and languages.
Born in Los Angeles, Stephen first began playing the piano by ear at age 3, before moving on to more formal music studies. In his teens and early 20s, he was the keyboard player for several art rock groups including Cerberus and Vysion. He was also during those years a solo jazz pianist playing in many southern California clubs and lounges, as well as the music arranger for a nationally syndicated televangelist program. He was a proud winner of television’s “The Gong Show” in 1976.
In the early 90's his career as a classical pianist was launched after receiving the Avery Fisher Career Grant and winning medals at the Tchaikovsky (Moscow) and Queen Elisabeth (Brussels) Piano Competitions. Since then, Stephen has performed the classical concerto repertoire as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras, and his classical discography includes acclaimed recordings of the Barber and McDowell concerti with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. Solo piano recording projects have included Bach’s “Well-Tempered Clavier”, an album of Russian masterworks, and a CD of jazz piano originals entitled “Passengers”.
From 2004 – 2007, Stephen was Artistic Partner with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where he led concertos from the keyboard, performed in chamber ensembles, conducted works of living composers, developed and arranged collaborations for their series of contemporary and world music, and wrote several new works for the orchestra. From 2009 – 2012, he was the Artistic Director of the Cartagena International Festival of Music, South America’s largest festival of its kind, programming and curating concerts with themes ranging from Mozart celebrations, to eclectic evenings of folk and popular music of the Americas, to hybrid programs fusing art and dance music of multiple musical dimensions. He was the curator for the acclaimed experimental series “Evolution” in San Diego and Tijuana and was the founder of the International Chamber Music Festival in El Paso. He was appointed Visiting Artist at Stanford University in 2023.
As a composer, Stephen’s long collaboration with Grammy Award winning Kronos Quartet has resulted in over 40 arrangements and compositions for them. Other leading artists and ensembles that have performed Stephen’s compositions and arrangements include Leon Fleisher, Dawn Upshaw, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma, Spoleto USA, Emmanuel Ax and the Silk Road Project. His sound tracks to several great silent films of the 1920s have been performed throughout the world. Passionate about supporting families touched by developmental disabilities, Stephen is an active board member of several local and national Autism advocacy organizations. He co-founded the non-profit “Autism Fun Bay Area”, whose mission is to promote and create enjoyable “Azure” events: artistic and recreational environments for people on the spectrum and their families. His makes his home in San Francisco.
Stephen Prutsman’s Releases with Phenotypic:
St. Lawrence String Quartet & Stephen Prutsman
Erich Wolfgang Korngold Piano Quintet in E Major Op. 15
August 2023