Stefan read music at Oxford University and was a choral scholar at Queen’s College. After a spell writing for Granada Television, he moved to London where his extensive credits as Musical Director include shows at the National Theatre; the Barbican; the Almeida; Hampstead Theatre; Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park; St James Theatre, and the British premiere of “Boy Meets Boy” at the Jermyn Street Theatre, a theatre with whom he has enjoyed a long relationship. He has also enjoyed long relationships with the Warehouse Theatre, Croydon – composing and directing the scores for over 30 productions, including Dick Barton – Special Agent, which toured the UK for 2 years – and with the Nottingham Playhouse, where the adaptation of “Forever Young” he co-authored with Giles Croft has returned by popular demand four times. Other credits as Musical Director include shows in Oxford, Sheffield, Bolton, Cambridge, Cardiff, Swansea, Chichester and Edinburgh.
As a cabaret performer he has enjoyed seasons at The Crazy Coqs, The Pheasantry, Pizza on the Park, King’s Head and Jermyn Street Theatres in London. He has also worked overseas in Antibes, Cannes, Monte Carlo, Malaga, Dubai, Adelaide, Barbados, and Vienna. His acclaimed show “An Evening Of Flanders And Swann” – originally commissioned by the widows of Michael and Donald – has been seen in Australia, the Middle East, India and Europe – as well as throughout the UK, including 2 sell-out seasons at the Jermyn Street Theatre. “Stefan Bednarczyk Sings Noel Coward” received its premiere at The Crazy Coqs in Piccadilly Circus in July 2013. An huge critical and box-office success, it returned there twice, before being seen in France, Monaco and the Caribbean. The show “Just In Time” – a celebration of the lives and works of Comden and Green, which he co-devised and performs with Anne Reid – has enjoyed sell-out runs at the St James Studio, Crazy Coqs, London Festival Of Cabaret, Pheasantry and Red Pear Theatre in Antibes, and Stefan and Anne performed it at “Feinstein’s 54Below” in New York in October 2015
As an actor, Stefan’s London roles include a year-long run opposite Gene Wilder in Laughter on the 23rd Floor (Queen’s Theatre), the West-End première of Coward’s Semi-Monde (Lyric); The Games of Love and Chance (National Theatre), The L.A. Plays (Almeida); Five O’Clock Angel (Hampstead and King’s Head); The Killing Of Mr Toad and The Grand Duke (Finborough) and Noel Coward’s Christmas Spirits (St James Theatre).
His films include Friends Pictured Within (a film about the writing of the Enigma Variations, in which he played Elgar); Mike Leigh’s Oscar –winning “Topsy-Turvy”, in which he played the Musical Director of the D’Oyly Carte, Francois Cellier; and most recently Stephen Frears’ “Florence Foster Jenkins”, starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant, in which he plays Stephen Foster.
He is Organist and Choirmaster at St Patrick’s Church, Soho Square, in London (one of the few Catholic parish churches in the country with a professional choir), and conducted the world premiere of the St Patrick’s Magnificat by Sir James MacMillan in 2012, and the world premiere of Sir James’s new cycle “The Culham Motets” in December 2015.
Stefan teaches regularly at RADA, where he has been a guest musical director for 20 years, and is a faculty member of the Read Dance And Theatre College.
