Dr. Scott A. Stewart

Music Director and Conductor

Scott Stewart is the Music Director and Conductor of the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony, a position he has held since 1999.

He served as the Director of Wind Studies at Emory University from 1999-2013, where he conducted the Emory Wind Ensemble, Emory Symphony Orchestra, and taught courses in conducting, wind band literature and history, and film music. He was a member of the Westminster Schools faculty from 2013-2022 where he taught Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, and Film Music.

A native of Cicero, Indiana, Stewart holds a Bachelor of Music Education and Doctor of Music in Conducting from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, and a Master of Music from the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin. Stewart's instructors include Ray Cramer, Stephen Pratt, David Woodley, Eugene Rousseau, Robert Duke, and Jerry Junkin.

Stewart has served as:

• Conductor of the Emory University Symphony Orchestra

• Principal Conductor of the Star of Indiana Brass Theatre

• Assistant Conductor of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra

• Guest Lecturer and Conductor at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts

• Director of Instrumental Music for the West Virginia Governor's Honor Program

• Instrumental music instructor at McCallum High School and Lamar Middle School in Austin, Texas

A passionate advocate for new music and living composers, he has commissioned and recorded wind band/ensemble premieres, including music by Jennifer Higdon, Bruce Broughton, John Mackey, Stephen Paulus, Steven Bryant, Jonathan Newman, Libby Larsen, Carolyn Bremer, Kevin Kaska, Todd Stalter, Jim Bonney, Roger Cichy, Kevin Walcyzk, William Pitts, Jonathan Hoffmann, Peter Child, and others. In November 2012, NAXOS released CD of Christmas music by the Emory Symphonic Winds ("In the World of Spirits") for wind band/ensemble on the “Wind Band Classics” label.

Surrounding his students with some of the world’s great musicians is an embedded goal at AYWS. Stewart’s artistic collaborations have included projects with:

• Frank Ticheli (composer, University of Southern California)

• Christopher Theofanidis (composer, Yale University)

• Michael Gandolfi (composer, New England Conservatory)

• Ron Nelson (composer)

• Chris Martin (principal trumpet, Chicago Symphony Orchestra)

• Richard Stoltzman (clarinet)

• Robert Spano (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra)

• Eugene Rousseau (saxophone, University of Minnesota)

• William Ransom (piano, Emory University)

• Jeff Nelsen (horn, Indiana University)

• Mark Scatterday (conductor, Eastman Wind Ensemble)

• Richard Prior (composer and conductor, Emory University)

• Susan Rider (cornet, U.S. Marine Band)

• Mark Clodfelter (trumpet, University of Kentucky)

• Scott McAllister (composer)

• Jennifer Marotta (trumpet)

• Michael Metzger (percussion, U.S. Marine Band)

• Peter Burkholder (musicologist, Indiana University)

• Lois Reitzes (program director, WABE)

Stewart has conducted the Georgia All-State Band and performances by the Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony at the GMEA State In-Conference in Savannah, Carnegie Hall in New York City, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, the national MENC conference in Milwaukee, and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, as well as broadcast on Public Radio International’s acclaimed radio show, From the Top, and featured regularly on WABE 90.1’s “Atlanta Music Scene.” The Emory Wind Ensemble performed at GMEA in Savannah as well as two performance tours of Europe (Rothenberg, Munich, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Lucerne, Vienna, Prague, and Graz) and a concert tour of Greece. He is the founder and on-air host of “Summer Winds,” a program devoted to wind band music on Atlanta’s National Public Radio affiliate, WABE 90.1 FM, which begins national syndication in the summer of 2014. Stewart is also heard frequently on the air “pitching” during the biannual fund drives with WABE program director Lois Reitzes.

Stewart is a contributing research associate for volumes 2-9 of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, as well as Teaching Music Through Performance of Marches, all published by GIA. He has presented scholarly papers at the Hawaii International Conference on the Arts and Humanities and the Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Förderung der Blasmusik in Oberwelz, Austria. He has also published in The Instumentalist and Music Educators Journal.

To serve the greater Atlanta community in music education outreach, Stewart co-founded and facilitated outreach programs which are still running, including Saxophone Day (with Dr. Jan Baker), Bassoon Day and the Summer Bassoon Extravaganza (with Dr. Shelly Unger), Atlanta Percussion Symposium, International Euphonium Institute (with Prof. Adam Frey), and the Atlanta Trumpet Festival (with Prof. Kay Fairchild). Stewart founded the Emory Summer Concert Band in 2010 as part of the Emory Pre-College Program and to model an integrated, diverse community ensemble, which will resume activities at Westminster in the Summer of 2014.

With Dr. Laurie Scott at the University of Texas at Austin, Stewart is co-founder and director of Bend the Twig, Inc., a non-profit organization which promotes the integration of character education in music classrooms. In this capacity, he has appeared nationally at education and music conferences, presents in-services for teachers and administrators, and frequently writes on topics of character and ethics in the performing arts.

An active saxophonist, he is founder and member of the Emory Saxophone Quartet, which has performed at the Rome Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum, and throughout the city. Stewart has performed on American Public Media’s “Pipedreams Live” hosted by Michael Barone, with the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, and at St. Phillip’s Cathedral (Atlanta) and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (New York City) with organist David Lamb. Two recent CDs feature his playing: “Beyond the Horizon, volume 2” with Adam Frey, euphonium; and Michael Finnerty, piano; and “Gothic Chills and Reverberating Thrills” with David Lamb.

Stewart is the former Manager of the Indiana University Summer Music Clinic for High School Students, where he continues to serve on the faculty. Professional memberships include the Conductors Guild, College Music Society, National Band Association, National Association for Music Education (formerly MENC), Georgia Music Educators Association, and the College Band Directors National Association.

At Emory University, he was departmental liaison for the PACE advising program and coordinated the undergraduate recruitment initiative for the Department of Music. He served on the Emory Scholars Selection Committee for eleven years, as well as the Emory Scholars Advisory Board, Emory College Admission and Scholarship Committee, Pre-College Program Advisory Board, PACE Advisory Board, the Emory College Honor Council, and freshman advisor for twelve years. He was honored by the Emory University student body by being selected to present the annual “Last Lecture,” has been a “faculty spotlight speaker” for Family Weekend for the past two years, and was faculty convocation speaker in 2011, received the Winship Award for Senior Lecturers in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences for 2011-12 and the Faculty Appreciation Award from the Office of Admission in 2009.

He is an active guest conductor, teacher, clinician, author, speaker, and saxophonist.