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http://academyofscoringarts.org -- At our meeting on October 21, 2016, we talked with composer and conductor Russell Steinberg, and took a look at his work Cosmic Dust.

Composer Russell Steinberg received a Ph.D. in Music from Harvard University studying with Leon Kirchner, an M.M. from the New England Conservatory studying with Arthur Berger, and a B.A. from UCLA studying with Elaine Barkin. Recent performances of his solo, chamber, and orchestral music have been in Los Angeles, Baltimore, New Jersey, Vienna, and Prague. The SAN BERNARDINO CARES benefit for the families of the victims of the 2015 terrorist attack featured Steinberg’s Aria for a Calmer World (violin and orchestra). Cosmic Dust for orchestra (commissioned by a tri-consortium of orchestras—the New West Symphony, the Bay Atlantic Symphony, and the Hopkins Symphony) was a special featured Science News Magazine article for the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope. The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony recently premiered Canopy of Peace, a song cycle based on meditations by noted scholar and philosopher Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis.

Steinberg performs solo concerts on both piano and classical guitar. He studied piano with Earle Voorhies and Salome Arkatov, both students of famed Juilliard teacher Rosina Lhevinne, and studied classical guitar with Dorothy Compinsky and Ronald Purcell, a student of Andrés Segovia. In spring 2016, Steinberg released Blue Pool, a CD collection of solo guitar pieces influenced by Hawaiian Slack Key.

In addition to composing and performing, Steinberg conducts the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra, a widely praised group that includes 120 students from over 60 schools. This season, the orchestra performs locally at Ambassador Auditorium and UCLA, and is planning a concert tour of Italy in summer 2017. Steinberg is also a popular speaker for pre-concert talks with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and annually offers a Winter Evening Lecture Series on a wide range of topics open to all curious listeners. This year’s special topic compares the music of Shostakovich and Prokofiev. For information about Steinberg’s current performances, recordings, and lectures, please visit www.russellsteinberg.com.