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; a premiere which has led to a further Arts Council funded album recording and tour set for November 2025.

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.

Steve Saunders is a core member of Xhosa Cole’s Quartet, and has performed at a variety of festivals including Austria’s ‘INNtöne Jazz Festival’ and Belgrade’s ‘Jazz in the Garden’. Other highlights include recording duo for BBC Radio 3’s Words and Music programme, recording with Soweto Kinch for the Commonwealth Games, as well as recording a quartet live album, On A Modern Genius (Vol.1), as part of a 35-date UK tour, which featured such prestigious venues as Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club and Manchester Jazz Festival. Their concerts have included special guests such as Nathaniel Facey, Rachael Cohen and China Moses.

His gigging career also includes frequent collaborations with Paul Dunmall, 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, alongside other recordings including Yes Tomorrow and It’s a Matterof Fact for Discus Music, reviewed by The Wire, Jazzwise and the Jazz Journal, and World Without for 577 Records (Brooklyn, NY), reviewed by The Quietus. He recently performed at Paul’s 70th birthday concert at Vortex Jazz Club with improvising legends Evan Parker, John Edwards and Mark Sanders.

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.