Piano with Steven M.

Dr. Steven M. was born in Newport Beach and grew up in Southern California. He began studying the piano when he was seven years old and studied with Dr. Mark Sullivan from 1998 to 2002. During that time, he was a full-time student at the Orange County High School of the Arts in the Instrumental Music Piano department under the direction of Dr. Stephen Cook. He received a Bachelor of Music degree and a Performer Diploma from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he was a student of Distinguished Professor of Music Menahem Pressler. He received a Master of Music Degree from Manhattan School of Music, where he is currently a doctoral candidate studying with Andre-Michel Schub. Dr. M. has received awards in many competitions and festivals including Second Prize and the award for the best performance of a piece written by an American composer at the Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition. In 2002, Steven was admitted to the Young Artists Guild, the most prestigious recognition awarded by the Music Teachers Association of California. While at Indiana University, Steven was awarded the Kenda Webb Memorial Scholarship and the Theodore Presser Scholarship in recognition of his outstanding work. He has served on the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music pre-college piano program and also as an associate instructor of piano at the college level. He has performed extensively as soloist, chamber musician, and with orchestras throughout the United States and Europe. Steven has worked with such distinguished artists as Yoheved Kaplinsky, Jerome Lowenthal, Andre Laplante, Christopher Elton, Roger Vignoles, Carol Vaness, Dawn Upshaw, Virginia Zeani, and Golda Vainberg-Tatz. He has established himself as a prominent collaborative pianist playing many recitals each season with singers and instrumentalists. He has participated in numerous music festivals including Music Academy of the West, The International Keyboard Institute and Festival, The TCU-Van Cliburn Institute, and the Adamant Music School where he performed live on Vermont Public Radio. In addition to operating a successful private teaching studio in New York City, Steven currently serves on the faculty at Manhattan School of Music in the Keyboard Skills department, is the official accompanist for the Denes Striny Vocal Studio, and is the Director of Music at St. John's Lutheran Church in Hoboken, New Jersey.