The Dallas competition is the largest, but not the only competition Mr. Foster has won. In 1986 he won first place in the Undergraduate Organ Playing Competition sponsored by First Presbyterian Church in Ottumwa, Iowa and then in 1987 he won the American Guild of Organists Regional Competition in Augusta, Georgia. That same year, he was awarded second place in the Open Organ Competition in Fort Wayne, Indiana and in 1988 was a finalist in the American Guild of Organists' National Organ Playing Competition held in Houston. In 1996 he was awarded first prize in the William Hall Pipe Organ Competition held in San Antonio.

Many of Stewart Wayne Foster's formative years were spent in France, where in 1990 he was awarded admission to the well-respected French music conservatory, L'Ecole Normale Superieure de Musique de Paris. Out of nine applicants of different nationalities, Mr. Foster was chosen to occupy one of the two spaces available during the 1990-91 academic year and was admitted to the class of Suzanne Chaisemartin, herself a student and disciple of Marcel Dupré. After a years' study he received the highly-coveted Diplôme de Concertiste by playing a major recital in the Church of St. Augustine in Paris after which the jury awarded Mr. Foster the Premier Prix de Virtuosité.

From 1991-1995, Mr. Foster performed regularly in Paris and the French provinces. His recital at La Madeleine in Paris brought rave reviews as did his performance during the music festival in St. Yrieix, where Mr. Foster was described as “a young musician that already exhibits a seductive flair that will permit him to rapidly take his place among the top in his field.” During his time in Paris he was Assistant Organist of the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris.

In 1995, Stewart Wayne Foster returned to the United States to pursue a Master's degree in harpsichord and early music at the University of North Texas in Denton, where he studied with Dr. Lenora McCroskey. Mr. Foster was awarded a teaching fellowship at the university, was the recipient of the university's Helen Hewitt Memorial Scholarship, and took his master's degree there with honors.

A native of Melbourne, Florida, Mr. Foster began his organ studies with Martha Root. During his teen years, he studied with Jack Jones and Robert Hebble and completed his high school education by the age of 17 at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan where he studied organ with Robert Murphy and piano with Charles Ashe. He then entered the Stetson University School of Music in 1985 as an early admissions student and recipient of a Tinsley Scholarship. There he studied organ with Paul Jenkins and Murray Somerville and graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Music degree with a minor in French.

As a winner of the Dallas Competition, Mr. Foster has been featured as orchestral soloist and solo recitalist in numerous appearances in concert halls and churches throughout the United States. He performed the world premiere of Lux Perpetua by the Pulitzer Prize winning composer Samuel Adler with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as part of his competition prize. In July 1999 he performed a solo recital to great critical acclaim in Chartres Cathedral as part of the International Organ Festival held there every summer. His first CD recording of French Symphonic Organ Literature was released in January 2000 on the Towerhill label. In addition to his career as recitalist, Mr. Foster is Organist in Residence at First Congregational Church, Los Angeles.