Although Steve is a fine pianist, he started piano lessons rather late — age 12. By age 14 he was studying with Jean Kopf, who inspired him by playing things like "Slav March Boogie."
     Steve's first musical composition was "The Mad Scientist and the Bug" which he wrote for his rock band Elbie Dunyan.
     At age seventeen he knew he wanted to be a serious composer, based on the success of such pieces as "Little Licks with Things on Their Wings." (Steve writes great titles.)
     After high school, he attended UC Riverside. In music theory class, he objected to the constraints of eighteenth-century harmony. He left the school. Later he realized that they weren't telling him how to write music; they were telling him how music had been written.
     He became a piano technician, but the composing itch hadn't left. At 28, he decided to go back to school. He applied to the New England Conservatory, but didn't get in. He did get into Berklee, and studied jazz there while hanging out at NEC as much as possible. The next year he applied to NEC again and got in, finishing a bachelor's in composition.
     Among many other compositions, Steve has written a symphony. It took him eighteen years, two fewer than Brahms took to write his First.
Favorite composer: "I hate to say Beethoven, but it's Beethoven."
Favorite piano: "I played a Schimmel I liked once."
Fact you might not know about Steve: "I lost my hair at an early age."