Composer Steven Bryant
The final program of our 2024/25 Season, Irrational Joy, featuring Steven Bryant’s title work, is a jubilant collection of music designed to lift your spirits.
Irrational Joy, which will receive its inaugural performance by the Northshore Concert Band on June 7, 2025, is an exhilarating ode to boundless happiness, filled with whirling woodwinds, brilliant brass episodes, and driving percussion that propels the music forward with infectious energy.
Steven Bryant says of this work:
Irrational Joy is part of the five-work Miniature Suite, commissioned by Kappa Kappa Psi, National Band Fraternity, and Tau Beta Sigma, National Band Sorority for the 2017 national convention. Perpetual motion ostinati in the woodwinds propel the rising brass ever forward to create a joyful music tinged with moments of dissonance. Beauty on the edge of catastrophe.
Steven Bryant’s music is chiseled in its structure and intent, fusing lyricism, dissonance, silence, technology, and humor into lean, skillfully crafted works that enthrall listeners and performers alike. Winner of the ABA Ostwald award and three-time winner of the National Band Association’s William D. Revelli Award, Steven Bryant’s music for wind ensemble has reshaped the genre. A prolific composer, his substantial catalogue of music is regularly performed throughout the world. Recently, his Ecstatic Waters was premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra to unanimous, rapturous acclaim. The son of a professional trumpeter and music educator, he strongly values music education, and his creative output includes a number of works for young and developing musicians.
Steven was Distinguished Visiting Professor of Composition at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro for the 2014-2015 academic year. Steven studied composition with John Corigliano at the Juilliard School, Cindy McTee at the University of North Texas, and W. Francis McBeth at Ouachita University, trained for one summer in the mid-1980s as a break-dancer (i.e. was forced into lessons by his mother), was the 1987 radio-controlled car racing Arkansas state champion, has a Bacon Number of 1, and has played saxophone with Branford Marsalis on Sleigh Ride. He resides in Durham, North Carolina, with his wife, conductor Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant (Duke University).
In 2017, we spoke with Steven Bryant about his work In This Broad Earth, a highlight of our 61st season finale concert. As we approach the final concert of our 69th season, we are thrilled again to have the opportunity to speak with Steven and ask him to share his journey in music, his favorite musical memory, and more.
Please tell us about your journey in music and life. I grew up the son of public school teachers in Arkansas. My father was a band director, trumpeter, and arranger, and I was drawn to composing early on — much more so than practicing my saxophone! I studied music composition in Arkansas, Texas, and New York before working in IT at Juilliard for a decade, and then ultimately making my way as a freelance composer since then.
In your 2017 NCB interview, you shared that your musical influences included Stravinsky, Nine Inch Nails, Webern, Mr. Bungle, and your teachers, W. Francis McBeth, Cindy McTee, and John Corigliano. Would you add any additional musical influences to this list? Those are still the core of my influences, though I'd add Radiohead and XTC to the list.
Please share your favorite musical memory. Premiering Ecstatic Waters for orchestra and electronics with the Minnesota Orchestra, conducted by Eric Whitacre.
What is on your Spotify playlist or in your music library? I don't use Spotify, but my Apple Music library is mostly Peppa Pig, Bluey, Muppets, and most recently, the Frozen soundtrack. I have a young child, if you can't tell!
Which composer or musician, past or present, would you most like to meet for a coffee? David Lynch, or perhaps Hildegard von Bingen.
What inspires you? My daughter.
What do you do to relax? I enjoy landscape photography and editing the photos. It's creativity without any external expectations, purely for myself.
In your 2017 NCB interview, your advice for young musicians was that “the hours of persistence in learning your craft will bring ongoing rewards throughout the rest of your life. Regardless of whether or not you plan to become a professional musician, continue to make music throughout your life, such as in a community band or orchestra. You will be a happier human being if you do.” Would you like to alter your advice or keep it the same for this new feature? I stand by that!
Please share any thoughts that you may have about the Northshore Concert Band. This is a legendary ensemble and institution, and I'm honored every time you perform my music!
Please add anything else you would like our audience to know about you. My mother signed me up for breakdancing lessons against my will when I was a child, in the 1980s. I can do the wave, though.
A special thank you to Steven Bryant for speaking with us and giving permission to reproduce this material. Please visit his website, stevenbryant.com, to learn more.
IRRATIONAL JOY
Saturday, June 7, 2025, 3:00 p.m.
McGrath Family Performing Arts Center, Loyola Academy, Wilmette, Illinois
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