On discovering he was the only one who could pick out Auld Lang Syne on a toy piano as a very tired 4 year old at a New Year party in the early ’70s, he went on to persuade his mum and dad that learning violin, piano and flute was a great idea. He appeared in a few school musicals, led the school orchestra, and discovered composition. His teenage compositions were… naive. We then went to university and started rock band, Blue Powder, and learnt how to write songs and pass engineering exams.
He eventually picked his violin back up a couple of decades and a couple of kids later, joining one of the oldest amature orchestras in the UK, Redhill Sinfonia. Exposure to playing a broad variety of old stuff rekindled his excitement for writing his own music, and after some rather random experimentation, he took some composition lessons with the extremely helpful Noriko Shorney.
Now with five symphonies, half a dozen concerti and nine string quartets written, he’s given up the day job and focusses most of his waking hours one way or another on playing and writing. He’s added the trumpet to the list of things he can play sort of properly just so that he can write better brass parts. It also means he can play a bit of jazzy stuff in local wind band, Rewind, along with a bit of baroque and classical with Dorking Chamber Orchestra .
Still playing with Redhill Sinfonia, often now as a principle, he’s been priviledged to have this excellent full sized orchestra workshop and premier many of his works.
Steve continues to write furiously at very odd times of the day and night. Inspiration for his work can spring from anywhere, but is most frequently found in observations of nature and the environment.
His rock band, Blue Powder is still making new original music, having written and recorded over twenty albums of (very indie) tunes.
Steve Chowne Music 