Stephen Pierce studied clarinet with Wilfred Kealey, Colin Bradbury and John McCaw - bass clarinet with Stephen Trier. Since leaving the Royal College of Music in 1975 he has consistently remained in demand over a wide range of musical styles as a freelance musician.

As an orchestral player he was for many years principal clarinet with Orchestra da Camera. He has played for most of the major British orchestras on either clarinet or saxophone - he particularly enjoyed playing with the London Symphony Orchestra under Andre Previn and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra during Sir Simon Rattle's tenure. With the National Symphony Orchestra, he recorded approximately 65 complete musicals at for TER Records at EMI Studios Abbey Road

Stephen has always been a keen chamber musician. As a recitalist, he made his debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1980 and for many years worked as a recitalist and lecture/recitalist with William Blezard as his accompanist. Soon after leaving the RCM he joined the Marlborough Wind Quintet. Under sponsorship from Nova Music they regularly played specially commissioned works at a variety of venues including the Purcell Room, St John's Smith Square and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. For many years he played baritone saxophone with the Franchi Sax Quartet, was a member of Capital Clarinets (a clarinet sextet) on bass clarinet and his wind octet, Harmoniemusik of London, made its debut recording with Virgin Classics in June 1997 and its Wigmore Hall debut in October 1997.

At present, Stephen plays bass saxophone with Saxpac, a saxophone septet (CDs soon to be released, details to follow) and is a member of the Reineke Trio with Christopher Wellington (viola) and Terence Allbright (piano)(also releasing a CD in 2008).

He is a busy session musician – recent projects include the film of The Golden Compass, the film of Mamma Mia (to be released in the summer of 2008), the TV series Marple and the recent series of Oliver Twist for the BBC. He has made numerous recordings - the biggest selling CD that Stephen has played on is probably the original cast recording of Phantom of the Opera. He also plays regularly in the theatre. For many years he worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican Theatre, London and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford. He has toured many times with the RSC in Europe and the Far East. The 2002 tour of The Merchant of Venice (of which he was Musical Director at the Swan Theatre, Stratford) travelled to the USA, China, Malaysia and Japan as well as UK venues. He has also worked for the New Shakespeare's Globe and many West End productions.

At the Royal National Theatre he played in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (bass saxophone, bass clarinet and clarinet) and Caroline, Or Change (clarinet, bass clarinet, alto sax and flute) which won the Evening Standard “Best Musical of the Year” award. He has just finished Parade (clarinet, bass clarinet) at the Donmar Warehouse (a CD of the show is now available from Dress Circle Records).

Stephen is a former professor of clarinet and saxophone at the London College of Music.