Being strongly committed to performing and promoting contemporary music, Stephen has premièred many new works, including those written for him by several internationally renowned composers, including Sir Harrison Birtwistle's “Today Too” and Nicholas Maw's “Tango from Sophie’s Choice“. In a special collaboration with the tenor Philip Langridge, he gave the première recording of Maw’s masterpiece "Music of Memory" for solo guitar, and his "Six Interiors for Tenor and Guitar“, (Chandos Records). An award winning recording that also included music of Benjamin Britten’s "Nocturnal, after John Dowland for Solo Guitar" and "Songs from the Chinese".

Recently Stephen premiered his arrangements for guitar and tenor of Henry Purcell's incidental music to Thomas d’Urfey’s play “A Fool’s Preferment” and a Schubert cycle. Along with acclaimed transcriptions of sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti and other keyboard music of JS Bach, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Isaac Albéniz, and Enrique Granados.

Active in chamber music Stephen has appeared in special collaborations in concert and recordings with famed British tenor Philip Langridge, the Moscow String Quartet, Kurt Streit, Rufus Muller and Sebastian Bell amongst others. Stephen is a graduate of Yale University's School of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music and was a protégé of famed pedagogue Ricardo Iznaola. He was affiliated with the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1991, where he received classes with the celebrated guitarist Julian Bream. He has won many international prizes including the Guitar Foundation of America's International Solo, the Segovia International, and the Manuel de Falla. Stephen has had homes in New York City, London, Granada and currently lives in Barcelona.