Russell Steinberg
composer
About this Artist
Composer Russell Steinberg’s music has been described as “floating, luminous” (Boston Globe); “freshly lyrical, pulsating, edgy, infectious” (New York Concert Review); and “deeper while maintaining a descriptive surface” (Fanfare Magazine). Albany records released his piano trio Paleface, recorded by Trio Accento, inspired by the paintings of acclaimed New York “psychological pop" artist Jerry Kearns. Three orchestras—the New West Symphony in Los Angeles, the Bay Atlantic Symphony in New Jersey, and the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra in Baltimore—commissioned and premiered Cosmic Dust, a work that Science News magazine featured in its issue celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope. A Daniel Pearl Foundation commission, Stories From My Favorite Planet tells the story of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, alternating music with readings of Pearl’s own brilliant tragicomic articles. Actor Theodore Bikel (Fiddler on the Roof), KPFK radio host John Schneider, and LA Phil violinist Mitchell Newman are among many who have performed the work. The Bay Atlantic Symphony in New Jersey regularly programs Steinberg’s Hanukkah fantasy Lights On! on its holiday programs.
Steinberg’s music has received awards and grants from ASCAP (Young Composers Grant and ASCAPLUS), Composers Inc., NACUSA, MacDowell Colony, Aspen Composer Fellowships, First Prize in the New World String Quartet competition, the HEAR NOW Festival, the California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT), Illumine, and the Jewish Center for Culture and Creativity. He was a Gold Medal Jury’s Choice at the Park City Film Music Festival. Works from his catalog of nearly 100 works of solo, chamber, vocal, and orchestral music have been performed in the United States (Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Francisco, San Diego, San Bernadino, Park City, Boulder, Aspen, Colorado Springs, Appleton, Madison, Eau Claire, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Cummington, Boscawen, New York, Baltimore, Stamford, San Francisco, Stockton, New Cumberland, Atlantic City) and abroad (Austria, Czech Republic, Mexico, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, and Israel).
Steinberg is the Founder and former Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra, as well as a popular pre-concert lecturer for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. An enthusiastic fan base from around the world participates in his Zoom music lecture series on various musical topics and composers, as well as his Classical Listening Hangouts.
Steinberg holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he studied with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Leon Kirchner; an M.M. from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Arthur Berger; and a B.A. summa cum laude from UCLA with Elaine Barkin, Roy Travis, and Paul Reale. His early instrumental and composition teachers were Dorothy Compinsky (piano, classical guitar, violin), Kenneth Klauss (composition), Earle C. Voorhies (piano), Salome Arkatov (piano), and Ron Purcell (classical guitar).