Stephen Czarkowski

Stephen Czarkowski is in demand as a conductor, cellist and educator in the Washington D.C. area and nationally. He serves as Assistant Conductor of the Opera Camerata of Washington DC, as well as its orchestra personnel manager and principal cellist. With Opera Camerata Mr. Czarkowski has most recently conducted performances of The Merry Widow and Rigoletto to great success at the Embassy of Austria and Romanian Ambassador's residency. He was appointed Conductor of the Apollo Chamber Orchestra, which presented its first performance in November with John Aler, tenor. Upcoming engagements include conducting the Cincinnati Conservatory Orchestra (Schumann Conducting Festival), PMEA District 7 Orchestra, Frederick All-County Orchestra and the Apollo Chamber Orchestra.

He led The National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. as a debut conductor, in conjunction with being selected for the 2003 National Conducting Institute, directed by Music Director Leonard Slatkin. Other guest conducting appearances include Honolulu Symphony, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Friday Morning Music Club Orchestra and the 2008 The Berlin Airlift Orchestra, in a special Veterans Day performance at St. Matthews Cathedral. This past January Mr. Czarkowski worked with Maestro Jorma Panula at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, followed by working with the Richmond Symphony.

Mr. Czarkowski is currently on the cello and conducting faculty of Landon School, Bullis School, Montgomery College and Shepherd University in West Virginia. At Shepherd University he is Principal Cellist (Jim and Linda Walker Chair) of the 2 Rivers Chamber Orchestra and shares conducting duties with the Preparatory Orchestra. His students have won numerous local and statewide competitions, and hold principal chairs in area orchestras.

He graduated from The Catholic University of America in 2005 with a Graduate Artist Diploma in Orchestral Conducting, after receiving a full scholarship and teaching assistantship. In May 2002, Mr. Czarkowski graduated in the top percentile of his class from the Mannes College, The New School for Music with a Master of Music in cello (under Barbara Stein Mallow) and conducting (under David Hayes and Samuel Wong). Mr. Czarkowski received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1999 from the Mannes College, The New School for Music, under the tutelage of Carter Brey, principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic. He is an active member of the Conductors Guild, serving on the Board of Directors for a third term.

For more information please visit www.sczarkowski.com