Steven Byess

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Steven Byess


Background = Musician
Birth_name = Steven Lee Byess
Born = birth date and age|1961|6|6 Atlanta, Georgia
Genre = Classical, Operatic, Jazz, Light Opera, Band, Orchestral
Occupation = Conductor
Years_active = 1986-Present
URL = http://www.stevenbyess.com
Children = Daughter, Julianna Byess, (b. 1991)
Notable_instruments = Bassoon, Saxophone, Violin, Piano

Steven Byess is an American orchestral conductor.

Early career

Byess received his Bachelor of Music Degree in classical performance and jazz studies from Georgia State University, and his Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He also attended the Pierre Monteux Memorial School for Conductors. Byess was an assistant to conductor Robert Shaw at the Shaw Institute in Souilliac, France] He was also a finalist in the First Leonard Bernstein International Jerusalem Conducting Competition at the Tanglewood Music Center.

Recent work

Byess conducts symphony orchestras and opera companies, also working in the genres of Broadway, jazz and television. He is the Music Director of the Tupelo Symphony Orchestra, and serves as Cover Conductor for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Opera Conductor for the Cleveland Institute of Music and California State University, Los Angeles, and recently finished an 11 year tenure as the Associate Music Director of the Ohio Light Opera where he conducted over 400 performances of 50 diverse operas, operettas, and musical theater works.

With the Ohio Light Opera, Byess is featured on 11 CD recordings by Newport Classics, Albany Records, and Operetta Archives. In the summer of 2007, Byess conducted Bernstein's "Candide" at the Pine Mountain Music Festival and Puccini's La Bohème in Tel Aviv at the International Vocal Arts Institute. In November and December 2007, Byess conducted his third U.S. tour with the Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra from Krakow, Poland.

Byess was chosen by Walt Disney World Entertainment to conduct the 2000 NFL E*TRADE Super Bowl Halftime show. The production had over 400 performers, including the Walt Disney World Millennium Orchestra, and international artists Phil Collins, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, Toni Braxton, and Edward James Olmos, and was broadcast to over 900 million viewers worldwide.

Other interests

Byess wrote, co-directed and is featured in a PBS presentation entitled "Count On It!", which is designed for children grades K-3 and shows the correlation of music to mathematics.