About Steve

 

Steve Saunders is a composer, improviser and guitarist working in the fields of contemporary music, improvised music, and the space in-between. This has led to the creation and organisation of large-scale projects, regular collaboration, mentorship, performances throughout the UK and a wealth of experience as an educator. 

His interest in composition has led to a variety of notable performances. In 2019, he premiered a 41’, six-movement composition for large ensemble at the Eastside Jazz Club entitled Abstract Visions of a Foreign Land, which aimed to merge his interests in contemporary classical music (specifically French ‘spectral’ composers Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail) with improvised music. The work was extremely well received, and was given a second performance on the Symphony Hall Stage on June 29th, 2022, hosted by B:Music and Tony Dudley-Evans, which was filmed and recorded for future release. His second performance on the Symphony Hall Stage came in October 2022 after Steve received the ‘B:Music Jazz Commission’, for which he composed a set of original music with Berlin-based saxophonist Asger Nissen combining post-tonal and contemporary techniques with a small-ensemble jazz/improvisatory framework. Together with New York jazz drummer Jeff Williams, they premiered the music as a bass-less trio; the concert was filmed and recorded for future release.

Steve has worked on commissions throughout the UK and US, including a violin and percussion piece, A Tear in the Fabric, for US-based ensemble ‘String-Struck Duo’ (2019); a solo piano piece, Assimilation (or a failure in the art thereof) for Manchester-based ‘Contemporary Arts Jazz Ensemble’ (2020); and a work for electric guitar, trumpet and live electronics, TIMEBEING (for two improvisers), commissioned by Birmingham art gallery ‘Centrala’ (2021). Recent musical interests include investigations into the audience’s perception of time and how this can be manipulated as a composer, as well as exploring early Greek philosophy and its applications to music.

As a performer, Steve is a member of Xhosa Cole’s Quartet, in which they play contemporary arrangements of Thelonious Monk’s music, alongside original compositions and standards. Highlights include performances at PizzaExpress Jazz Club (Soho),  Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Manchester Jazz Festival, a recording session with Soweto Kinch for the Commonwealth Games and the establishment of Xhosa’s weekly residency ‘Legacy Jazz Nights’ in Handsworth, where the quartet performed with various special guests including Nathaniel Facey, Rachael Cohen and China Moses.

Steve is also a frequent collaborator of Paul Dunmall’s, and has performed with him in various configurations playing improvised music. These include a sextet featuring Percy Pursglove, which recorded the album ‘Cosmic Dream Projection’ on FMR Records, a quintet, which recorded the album ‘Yes Tomorrow’ for Discus Music, and a new quartet featuring Dave Kane on double bass and Miles Levin on drums (https://youtu.be/7CpvCjR8tvs), which recorded an album to be released on 577 Records (Brooklyn, NY) in 2023. They have performed at various venues including the Bristol Music Club and Eastside Jazz Club. 

He completed his BMus (Hons) in Jazz at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, alongside studying classical composition privately with composer and educator Lee Differ, working through the western classical tradition from eighteenth-century music through to present-day composers. Steve graduated in June 2019 with a First-Class Honours, and now studies with composer Robert Saxton, Former Professor of Composition and Tutorial Fellow in Music at Worcester College, Oxford. 

In addition, he is the Subject Leader of A-Level Music and Music Technology at Worcester Sixth Form College, and works as a lead and support tutor for the Birmingham Jazzlines Summer School and Saturday ensemble sessions.

Rapidly becoming one of the most exciting improvisers in the city
— Tony Dudley-Evans, TDE Promotions

Leading Abstract Visions of a Foreign Land on the Birmingham Symphony Hall Stage, 29.6.22

Here the guitar is undoubtedly the centrepiece… it’s Steve Saunders’ soloing which constantly keys the lock of the overall direction of travel
— Steve Day, reviewing Paul Dunmall's Yes Tomorrow