About SF: Stewart French biography, contact information
This page is a notebook for general info and current information/resources. Very much a WIP/scratch-pad.
For writing/book queries, contact Jaime Marshall (agent) via email
Info/contact for Fly On The Wall
Artist bio:
Stewart French is a British classical guitarist, filmmaker, record producer and audio-visual innovator, best known for his film Live at the V&A and for his work as a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is the founder of Fly On The Wall, a film and recording platform.
French’s musical life began with classical guitar, where he achieved exceptional academic and professional distinction. Following undergraduate studies at Cambridge, he became the highest-scoring postgraduate guitarist in history at the Royal Academy of Music, receiving an honorary DipRAM. He later became a permanent member of Tetra Guitar Quartet, whose debut recording was described by Gramophone magazine as “one of the best guitar ensemble recordings I have ever heard.”
As a performer, he appeared widely as a soloist and ensemble musician. His career included tours as guest soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, two sold-out performances at the Royal Albert Hall, recordings as soloist for labels including Harmonia Mundi USA and Naxos, and major collaborations with composers including Sir John Rutter and Tarik O’Regan.
In 2015 he founded Fly On The Wall to pursue a clear artistic goal: to create and document musical events that happen once, in real spaces, with minimal interference. The project has since produced over 300 films and recordings, working with major cultural institutions including the V&A, British Library and Science Museum, international artists such as Viktoria Mullova, Marc-André Hamelin and Angela Hewitt, and reaching millions of viewers and listeners worldwide.
French’s work has been featured by BBC Newsnight, BBC Four (Being Beethoven), Apple Music front-page editorial features, and publications including The Times, Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine. His projects combine artistic ambition with rigorous production methods, aiming to preserve the human reality of performance.
Alongside his musical career, French has driven innovation in the fusion of high-resolution recording and film, blending audio, camera and spatial design into a single process. Through Fly On The Wall and award-winning ventures such as Draft Audio Research (Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award), his central aim has remained constant: to make recorded music feel as close as possible to being there.
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For enquiries relating to the Way Of The Guitar book project, please contact my literary agent Jaime Marshall
Regarding course materials for my lectures at Royal Holloway or 8MG, please email me directly