Stephen Mayer (BM, MM)
Piano
Stephen Mayer, Composer and pianist, received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from Brooklyn College, CUNY. He also studied at Brandeis University and the University of Ghana. At Brooklyn College he read Pindar and other ancient Greek Masters with the late poet, Vera Lachmann, and joined the circle of artists around her. Among these was the composer Tui St. George Tucker for whom he worked as assistant for seven years, and the pianist Grete Sultan with whom he studied for many years. He debuted as a pianist and composer at Carnegie Recital Hall in 1976, with subsequent recitals at Town Hall, and Merkin Hall in New York. He presented a concert entirely of his own work at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1987. His “First Symphony” was performed at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia in another concert of his own work. Recently, chamber works have been presented at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York. With pianist Juny Jung, he founded the Simons’ Pond Music Festival, a chamber series in Pennsylvania, which has presented over thirty concerts both in Wayne County and in major concert venues in New York such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Locally he has frequently appeared on the WJFF programs “Community Voices” and in several entire broadcasts of his work on “Monday Afternoon Classics with Gandalf” the National Public Radio program devoted to contemporary music. A CD, “Stephen Mayer, Chamber Music” released in the Fall of 2007, includes a recent “Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano”, a piano work entitled “Romance of the Letters” and his “Sonata for Cello and Piano” (Rising Sun Sonata). His oervre includes seven symphonies as well as choral and instrumental chamber and solo works. He has written several works devoted to pedagogy including “Tom Thumb” (Schirmer Books, 1981), Sacred Songs, and the Yigdal Variations for piano and band, as well as the recent collection “The Book of Choirs” of liturgical music for use in local churches and synagogues. He has worked principally as a liturgical musician serving as Music Director at Astoria Center of Israel since 1989, and also currently as organist at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Narrowsburg, New York. He is President of the Simons’ Pond Foundation, which sponsors the Simons’ Pond Music Festival, and curates a collection of contemporary art, as well as manuscripts of poetry and music.