ABOUT STEVEN LAVEN
Steve Laven has been active as a performer and teacher for 20 years. After earning his Bachelor of Music degree in cello performance from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied cello with Robert Sylvester and chamber music with the Cleveland Quartet and Abram Loft, he won a fellowship in the professional training orchestra, the National Orchestra of New York. Subscription concerts were given at Carnegie Hall and rehearsals were led by conductors such as Oliver Knussen, Zubin Mehta, Kenneth Schermerhorn and Willi Boskovsky. Master classes were given by Ralph Kirschbaum, Janos Starker and Walter Trampler.
Steve earned a Master’s degree while in New York, at the Manhattan School of Music. There he studied cello with David Geber, chamber music with the American String Quartet and was principal cellist of the orchestra. Regular free-lance jobs included performing as principal cellist of the Bronx Symphony and the Liederkranz Chamber Orchestra and extra study was undertaken with members of the New York Philharmonic cello section: principal Lorne Munroe, associate principal Nathan Stutch and Evangeline Benedetti.
He spent two seasons in South Bend, Indiana playing with the South Bend Symphony and Midwest Pops Orchestras as principal cellist and serving as their personnel manager as well. He formed the Avanti Trio, a string trio devoted to the underplayed repertoire for violin, viola and cello. They performed at and were broadcast live on WFMT from the Chicago Cultural Center and were featured soloists with the South Bend Symphony. His studio of young cellists grew quickly, but in 1989 won the job of principal cello in the Omaha Symphony and relocated.
In Omaha, Steve was able to develop as a performer and an educator. In his seven seasons there, he soloed with the orchestra seven times and played chamber concerts regularly. He had a large private studio and performed in-school concerts with string quartet and chamber orchestra, often developing the interactive shows from scratch. Steve began to develop an interest in arranging, providing arrangements of Beatles tunes and classics for the Omaha Cello Ensemble. He met his wife there, Cynthia Meyers, who was the principal flutist, and they began performing chamber music regularly as well. They shared a love for the mountains and the Tetons became their favorite spot. Summers were spent there playing in the music festival with colleagues from all over the U.S.
The composition bug bit during the summers and Steve would often begin pieces in Wyoming and finish them during the winter. This continued after moving to Houston, where Cindy landed a job as piccolo player of the Houston Symphony. Steve found work in the Houston Ballet and Grand Opera Orchestras and again built up a studio of young cellists. He formed the Omega Quartet to play in the schools of southeast Texas via the Young Audiences program. His compositions began to be useful in grabbing the attention of student audiences and student cellists, but were also popular on new music programs such as the Foundation for Modern Music concert series.
His compositions have been played at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, at the Grand Teton Music Festival, and by quartets from the Houston and Colorado Symphonies and the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Now living in the Boston area where Cindy plays piccolo with the Boston Symphony, Steve is enjoying his two boys, and writing and recording his music more frequently. He performs regularly with local orchestras such as the Boston Pops, the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston and teaches cello privately. He’s an active member of the American String Teacher’s Association and the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP).
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