Stewart enjoys a diverse career as entrepreneur, pianist, teacher and broadcaster.
He is the founder and artistic director of Music by the Springs, which since 2018 has quickly become regarded as one of Australia’s finest chamber music festivals. In the same year he opened House of Pianos which is a hub for piano sales, music lessons and concerts and masterclasses.
As a performer, he works as a soloist and collaborator with many of Australia’s leading instrumentalists and singers at leading concert venues and festivals around the country. He has performed in many leading Australian venues, at Festivals in Tasmania, Hepburn Springs, Mackay, Townsville, Brisbane and Coramba and internationally in New Zealand, China, Italy and the USA.
His 2022 season includes directing the first Renaissance Tours Festival of Chamber Music in April, the fifth Music by the Springs, recitals at Tempo Rubato, a seventh year of Stewart Kelly and Friends at the Melbourne Recital Centre, and the Mackay Chamber Music Festival.
As a teacher and associate artist, Stewart is a casual staff member at the Melbourne Conservatorium at Melbourne University and part-time faculty at the Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School.
Stewart’s playing has also been broadcast widely, recording for the ABC with Stefanie Farrands, and numerous concert broadcasts (including live-to-air recitals) for 4MBS, ABC Classic and 3MBS. He features on a Melba records world premiere recording of an arrangement of Mahler’s second symphony for two pianos eight hands. This release was critically acclaimed worldwide and was named a ‘Hidden gem’ by the Guardian in London.
Stewart is a graduate of the Queensland University of Technology, the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University and the Australian National Academy of Music. He holds a Bachelor of Music with distinction and a Master of Music Studies, obtained while studying under the principal guidance of Gillian Wills, Diane Selmon, Stephen Emmerson and Timothy Young. In 2014 he was a Fellow of the Australian National Academy of Music, Australia’s most prestigious music training institution.
As a broadcaster, Stewart presents the program “Melbourne in Concert” on the 3MBS network in Melbourne. The program airs at 6pm on Sundays and can be streamed online or listened to on-demand.