Curtis Stewart to Perform 24 AMERICAN CAPRICES at 92NY

On Friday, October 9, 2026 at 7:00 PM, The 92nd Street Y will present seven-time GRAMMY Award-nominated violinist and composer Curtis Stewart, in a recital of his own works, including selections from 24 American Caprices, his GRAMMY-nominated album of Love., his arrangement of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's 24 Negro Melodies, and more.

Curtis Stewart's 24 American Caprices reframes the solo violin caprice as a site of cultural memory, technical invention, and personal storytelling, drawing on figures including Dolly Parton, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, Billy Strayhorn, Nina Simone, Wayne Shorter, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Joni Mitchell, and Oscar Peterson. The project grew out of Stewart's live performance of a caprice based on Stevie Wonder's 'Isn't She Lovely' at the 2022 GRAMMY Awards. The collection looks back to Niccolò Paganini and Henryk Wieniawski while pushing the form into a distinctly contemporary, American sound world.

The caprices were commissioned by The Juilliard School's Kayden Commissioning Program, Kaufman Music Center, American Public Media, the Royal Conservatory of Music, and violinist Deborah Buck, who performs her commission, the caprice inspired by Earth, Wind & Fire's 'September,' on the world premiere recording, released June 19, 2026 on Bright Shiny Things.

Other violinists have taken up the caprices. Seven of the players on the premiere recording are students, among them several still in high school and several who study with Stewart at The Juilliard School and the Perlman Music Program, and the collection has begun to appear in conservatory auditions. Violinist Tai Murray, who recorded the caprice inspired by Dolly Parton's '9 to 5,' will assign the set to her students at the Yale School of Music next academic year.

The sheet music is publicly available, accompanied by reference videos recorded with violinists from the album and a scrolling score. Performers are invited to contact Stewart directly with questions about the collection's extended techniques, which include stomps, whistles, chops, and tapping and slapping the body of the violin.

The recital pairs the new caprices with works from across Stewart's catalog. His GRAMMY Award-nominated album of Love. was recorded in the childhood apartment he inherited after the death of his mother, the violinist Elektra Kurtis-Stewart, and weaves original music for strings, electronics, and voice through recompositions of the songs she taught him, among them works by Alice Coltrane, Brahms, Duke Ellington, Szymanowski, and Purcell.

His arrangement of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's 24 Negro Melodies, originally a set of piano works built on spirituals and folk songs from Africa and the Americas, invites the audience to take part by voice, movement, or rhythmic clapping. 

Program Information:

• Friday, October 9, 2026 at 7:00 PM
• Curtis Stewart: American Caprices
• The 92nd Street Y (Buttenwieser Hall) | New York, NY
• Tickets: Starting at $45 (in-person) and $25 (streaming access)
• Link: www.92ny.org/event/curtis-stewart-american-caprices 

(Online streaming is available for 72 hours following the performance.)

Program: 

CURTIS STEWART: Selections from 24 American Caprices

Inspired by David Bowie, “Modern Love”; Janet Jackson, “Doesn't Really Matter”; “Taps”; J. Rosamond Johnson, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”; Bob Dylan, “Blowin' in the Wind”; Nina Simone, “Young, Gifted and Black”; Stevie Wonder, “Isn't She Lovely”; and Aretha Franklin, “Rock Steady”

CURTIS STEWART: Selections from of Love.

SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR: Selections from 24 Negro Melodies

I. Deep River (America), arr. Powell/Stewart/Berry

Program subject to change.

About Curtis Stewart

Seven-time GRAMMY Award-nominated violinist and composer Curtis Stewart translates stories of American self-determination to the concert stage. Tearing down the facade of “classical violinist,” he treats his art as a catalyst for realizing citizenship. 

As a solo violinist, composer, Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra, professor at The Juilliard School, and member of the award-winning PUBLIQuartet, he realizes a vision to find personal and powerful connections between styles, cultures, and musics. He was awarded a 2025 Sphinx Medal of Excellence.

Stewart's most recent project, 24 American Caprices, a contemporary response to the virtuoso violin caprice tradition, received its world premiere with the Gateways Festival Orchestra at the Eastman School of Music and Kaufman Music Center, with future performances to include Boston University Tanglewood Institute, D-Composed, and 92NY. A recording was released in summer 2026 on Bright Shiny Things featuring Stewart alongside professional and student violinists from The Juilliard School, Special Music School, and the Perlman Music Program. Read the profile in The New York Times.

Additional highlights of Stewart's 2026-2027 season include serving as Artist-in-Residence with the Wyoming Symphony, the world premiere of a Bartók recomposition with the Northwest Sinfonietta led by Jeff Meyer, a world premiere commissioned by Nova Linea Music, a solo cello work with Amy Barston at The Juilliard School, and Barber's Violin Concerto with the Anchorage Symphony. 

Stewart has been commissioned to compose new solo, chamber, and orchestral works by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall's Play/USA, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo and members of the New York Philharmonic, the American Composers Orchestra, Sphinx Virtuosi, the Royal Conservatory of Music, American Public Media, La Jolla Music Society, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, Orlando Philharmonic, The Knights, the New York Festival of Song, Newport Classical Festival, Sybarite5, Juilliard Prep, and the Eastman Cello Institute, among others.

As a soloist, Curtis Stewart has been presented by Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cal Performances, Washington Performing Arts,  National Philharmonic Orchestra, Virginia Arts Festival, The Juilliard School, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and the GRAMMY Awards, among many others. He has made special appearances with Los Angeles Opera and singer-songwriter Tamar-kali; as curator and guest soloist on the New York Philharmonic “Bandwagon” with touring performance installations from NYC's Whitney Museum, Guggenheim Museum, and Museum of Modern Art; on MTV specials with Wyclef Jean; and at sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden with Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, and Seal.

A prolific recording artist, Stewart saw the release of two albums in summer 2025, his Vivaldi recomposition Seasons of Change (Bright Shiny Things) and Sphinx Virtuosi's American Mirror (Deutsche Grammophon), featuring his Drill and Double Down. Stewart has been nominated for multiple GRAMMY Awards for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, including for his arrangement of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's 24 Negro Melodies, performed by The National Philharmonic under Michael Repper (AVIE); his recording of Julia Perry's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra with the Experiential Orchestra (Bright Shiny Things); his album of quarantined song cycles and art videos, Of Power (Bright Shiny Things); and his album of Love. (New Amsterdam), a tribute to his late mother, Elektra Kurtis-Stewart. Stewart received additional nominations in the Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance category for PUBLIQuartet's albums What Is American and Freedom and Faith (Bright Shiny Things). 

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