Long Bio:

Steven James (2000 - ) is a composer and pianist from Portland, Oregon, and now based in Baltimore, Maryland. As a composer, Steven’s work has been performed or commissioned in the United States and Canada, including the SonoKlect Series Music Festival in Lexington, Virgina, the Galiano Island Chamber Music Society and UBC Music in British Columbia, the UGA New Music Festival in Athens, Georgia, the Common Resonance Concert Series in New York City, the University of Oregon piano department, the Oregon Bach Festival Composer’s Symposium, San Francisco’s The Bridge Music Collective, the Baltimore Composer’s Forum, the College Music Society Mid-Atlantic Conference, many ensembles at the Peabody Institute, and multiple performances by Cascadia Composers (NACUSA’s Oregon chapter), for whom Steven is an active board member, concert curator, and administrator.

Steven’s composition style seeks to bring together a sense of enthusiastic adventure and exploration with an engagement with the nuances and depth of the internal human experience, often creating narratives and dramatic effects to explore deep emotions, using either natural or fantastical backdrops as the ‘setting’ for his music. Trained as a writer and poet in addition to his musical activities, Steven wishes to ‘cross the streams’ between literature and music, often comparing literary elements like plot, characterization, setting, dialogue, and stylistic diction to classical musical elements like form, harmony, timbre, counterpoint, and rhythm. His composition instructors have included Kevin Puts, David Crumb, Zae Mun, and Joshua Marquez, and he is currently completing a master’s degree in composition at the Peabody Institute.

At the piano, Steven has performed publicly as a soloist and chamber musician, championing both new music and the classical piano repertoire. His recent activities have included frequent performances of new music by members of the Peabody Composition Department (including a solo recital). Previously, he obtained bachelor’s and masters’ degree at the University of Oregon (both focused on piano performance), where he performed many recitals that included solo piano, chamber music and new music with organizations like IMPULSE Ensemble, the U of O Wind Symphony, and NACUSA’s Cascadia Composers, as well as the activities of the American Liszt Society.  His piano teachers have included Alexandre Dossin and David Riley.

An educator as well as a composer/performer, Steven began teaching private piano lessons during the pandemic and has worked with Cascadia Composers to maintain and spearhead a project entitled “In Good Hands,” which created composer/performer collaborations between beginning piano students and regional Oregon composers. He is also involved in BSO’s OrchKids, in which he accompanies young Baltimore-area elementary and middle-school students in public performances. When not pursuing any of these artistic activities, Steven enjoys exploring nature, writing poems and fantasy, rooting for the Oregon Ducks, and running a homebrew D&D campaign. All these hobbies serve to provide inspiration for his musical composition.

Short Bio:

Steven James is a composer and pianist from Portland, Oregon, and based in Baltimore, Maryland. As a composer, Steven’s work has been performed or commissioned in the United States and Canada, including the SonoKlect Series Music Festival in Lexington, Virgina, the Galiano Island Chamber Music Society and UBC Music in British Columbia, the UGA New Music Festival in Athens, Georgia, the Common Resonance Concert Series in New York City, the University of Oregon piano department, the Oregon Bach Festival Composer’s Symposium, San Francisco’s The Bridge Music Collective, the Baltimore Composer’s Forum, and multiple performances by NACUSA’s Oregon chapter, Cascadia Composers, for whom Steven is an active board member, concert curator, and administrator.

Steven currently studies Composition at the Peabody Institute with Kevin Puts, where he also frequently performs new music by his colleagues. Previously, he obtained bachelor’s and master’s degree at the University of Oregon in piano, where he performed many recitals with organizations like IMPULSE Ensemble, the U of O Wind Symphony, and NACUSA’s Cascadia Composers, as well as the activities of the American Liszt Society.  His piano teachers have included Alexandre Dossin and David Riley.