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A Short Biography of Daniel Stepner
(August 2016)

Violinist Daniel Stepner is the Artistic Director of the Aston Magna Festival and Foundation. He is also Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University, where he was first violinist of the Lydian String Quartet from 1987-2016. He was also a Preceptor in Music at Harvard University from 1993-2013, and Concertmaster of the Handel and Haydn Society from 1986 to 2009. His major teachers were Steven Staryk in Chicago, Nadia Boulanger in France and Broadus Erle at Yale University, where he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree.

A Detailed Biography of Daniel Stepner
(August 2016)

Born in 1946 in Milwaukee, Daniel Stepner grew up in Wisconsin, attending public schools in Janesville and Milwaukee. Both his parents were professional musicians and educators, and Stepner decided on a musical career at an early age. He did his undergraduate work at Northwestern University and graduate work at Yale, earning a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree. He also spent two summers at the Écoles d'Art Américaines in Fontainebleau, France, where he worked privately with Nadia Boulanger in musical analysis and violin repertoire. His principal teachers included Steven Staryk and Broadus Erle on violin, and Milton Weber and Gustav Meier in conducting. He also worked in composition with Alan Stout and Yehudi Wyner.

Since moving to Boston in 1975, he has been involved in many aspects of the Boston area's musical life: as concertmaster, chamber player, recitalist, recording artist, conductor, concerto soloist, private teacher, theatrical musical director, chamber series organizer, children's program coordinator, and chamber music coach. As a touring musician, he has played in eleven countries in Western Europe and in the former Soviet Union, and throughout Australia and the United States. He is featured on some sixty recordings of music from 1607-2012 (see discography).

He is presently Artistic Director of the Aston Magna Festival and Foundation. He is Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University, where he taught from 1987-2016. He also taught chamber music at Harvard University in conjunction with Robert Levin.

He was a founding member of the Boston Museum Trio, resident at the Museum of Fine Arts for thirty-five years, and for twenty-four years he was Concertmaster of the Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra under Christopher Hogwood and Grant Llewellyn. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts with his wife, viola da gambist Laura Jeppesen. Their son Benjamin is a jazz pianist and composer.