About Stephen
Stephen Czarkowski is in demand as a conductor, cellist and educator in the Washington D.C. area and nationally. He serves as Music Director and Conductor of the Apollo Chamber Orchestra and has collaborated with artists from the Metropolitan Opera and the Washington National Opera. In addition he is 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. In the Fall Mr. Czarkowski will also be a conductor for the Landon Symphonette and Guest Conductor of the University of Virginia Charlottesville Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming engagements include conducting the Cincinnati Conservatory Orchestra (Shostakovitch and Prokovief Conducting Festival), 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 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. During the Summer he serves as Principal cellist of the Shippensburg Festival Orchestra and teaches at Shepherd University String Camp.
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 Conductor’s Guild, serving on the Board of Directors for a third term. In the Fall 2011 Mr. Czarkowski will join the New School Alumni Association Board of Directors.