Founder
Beth Stewart
Respected for her creativity, candor, and integrity, Beth draws on her breadth of experience in the industry – as publicist, producer, and erstwhile performer. For the past decade, her trademark drive and infectious energy have shaped Verismo as a classical music PR firm that melds big-picture strategy with on-the-ground support, and she is proud to lead a team of powerful and culturally engaged women.
You can find Beth sprinting between television interviews in the run-up to Last Night of the Proms, debating word nuance while drafting a bilingual speech, and filming rehearsal footage of a refugee orchestra for a feature on The Today Show. In the last five years, she’s represented four different albums nominated for Classical Album of the Year at the Grammy® and Juno Awards.
Beth’s work has propelled clients to glossy magazine covers, successful appearances on global television outlets including CNN, BBC World, SBS, and ABC News, and features in top international publications including The New York Times, Washington Post, The Times, Opera News, Gramophone, and the Associated Press. She has played an integral role in major promotional campaigns with clients such as opera singers Jamie Barton and Russell Thomas, conductors Eun Sun Kim and Lidiya Yankovskaya, composer Jake Heggie, and recent projects including Songs for Murdered Sisters, Against the Grain Records, and world premiere operas across the United States.
Verismo clients have won many of classical music’s most prestigious prizes, earning recognition from the Metropolitan Opera, Grammy® Awards, Solti Foundation U.S., Richard Tucker Music Foundation, International Opera Awards, Juno Awards, Latin Grammy® Awards, and BBC Music Magazine Awards.
Beth’s multi-pronged education – a double-degree BA/BM from Johns Hopkins University in Latin American Studies and Peabody Conservatory in Voice Performance, followed by her MM and Graduate Performance Diploma from Peabody – prepared her to thrive while juggling the demands of multiple constituents.
Beth’s knack for connecting brilliant people and ideas has been instrumental in launching Turn The Spotlight, a non-profit program created to identify, nurture, and empower leaders – and in turn, illuminate the path to a more equitable future in the arts. Under Beth’s leadership, Turn The Spotlight offers mentorship by and for exceptional women, people of color, and members of other equity-seeking groups, with a particular interest in supporting artists who are using their talents and skills to strengthen their communities and pursue social justice.
As an in-demand speaker, Beth has shared her vision for the industry in recent sessions with the American Composers Forum, American Composers Orchestra, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Bard College, Carnegie Mellon University, Dallas Opera Hart Institute for Women Conductors, Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, Merola Opera Program, National Association of Teachers of Singing, Opera America, Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, San Francisco Opera Center, SphinxConnect, Sphinx LEAD, University of Michigan’s Arts Leadership Forum, WNO Opera Institute, YCA Career Catalyst, Young Concert Artists, and the Women in Classical Music Symposium presented by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Beth lives in Chicago with her husband Louis, their exuberant puppy, and three mischievous cats who – he assures her – will one day be best friends.