29.03. – Happy Birthday !!! Bill Stevens (composer, trumpet and flugelhorn) received a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Fredonia State University in 1978 and a Masters degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Miami in 1980.
Bill has performed professionally in Miami, Florida; upstate New York; New York City, San Francisco and Seattle, Washington. He has performed with Billy Eckstine, Earl ‘fatha’ Hines, Spyro Gyra, Ira Sullivan, Denis DiBlasio, Randy Johnston, Ronnie Leigh, Julian Priester, Brad Shepik, Chuck Metcalf, Marc Seales, Bob Meyer, John Bishop, Owen Howard, Dom Minasi, Pete McCann, Ben Gramm, Josh Sinton, Ben Rosenblum, Brian Woodruff and ensembles under his own name including currently the Bill Stevens Group, the Bill Stevens, Rich Russo, Gary Fogel Trio, the Bill Stevens Songbook and Standard Time Ensemble. Additionally, Bill performs in the Brass Quartet – As Though I Had Wings, the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble and the New York Jazz Workshop Big Band.
Bill has been the recipient of performance and composition grants from the Seattle Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Music Center. He has been a guest speaker with the Joint Research Centres Conference at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, Norway in 2017 and with the Australasian Jazz & Improvisation Research Network in 2018 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Since 1990, in New York City, Bill has performed in various Jazz clubs, festivals and music conferences. He has studied with Elliott Topalian, Herbert W. Harp, Gilbert Johnson, Randy Brecker, Jack Walrath, Laurie Frink and with bassist Joe Solomon. In the 1990’s he received a Masters in Education Administration from New York University and has recently retired as the Assistant Principal-Administration/Organization and the Supervisor of Performing Arts studios, as well as the Director of Jazz Studies at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens.
As of September 2016, Bill directed and coordinated Jazz programing for the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, the Lucy Moses School and the New York Jazz Workshop. Bill Stevens lives in New York City with his wife Laura and their son Mil.
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