Stephen Philip Harvey Octet at the Dorchester Center for the Arts

321 High Street,Cambridge MD 21613

07 May, 2022

Description

The Stephen Philip Harvey Octet presents an evening of original jazz music. The Stephen Philip Harvey Octet (SPH8) is a collective of eight musicians from several Mid-Atlantic jazz scenes coming together to play the original compositions and arrangements of Stephen Philip Harvey. This performance is part of SPH8's 2022 Spring Tour where they'll be premiering new music from Harvey's pen. The new music featured will be from Harvey’s newest octet suite, Elemental. The compositions from this suite are inspired by the classic elements: Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. In addition, the set will showcase reductions of some of his big band music, expansions of some of his small group music to fit this eight-member group. Website | Facebook | Instagram About Stephen Philip Harvey Stephen P. Harvey (1992), is a American saxophonist, composer, arranger, and educator. As a musician and bandleader, Stephen has performed extensively in Western Pennsylvania, Northeast Ohio, and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Several projects under his belt include his jazz duo/trio Harvey Allen, his mid-sized jazz combo SPH8, and his large ensemble the Stephen Philip Harvey Jazz Orchestra. He's also performed professionally with the First Class Big Band, The Akron Symphony Big Band, The Ohio Players, The Youngstown Jazz Collective, The Big Nasty, The Black Wolf and the Thief, The Vindy's, The House of Leaves Band, and other musical projects. On May 6, 2016, he released his debut album as composer and bandleader: Suite Childhood. His follow-up album, Smash!, is due to be released in Q2 of 2022. As a composer and arranger, Stephen has worked with a diverse array of musicians and instrumentations; composing for solo instrument to wind ensemble, jazz combo to large ensembles. It is his practice to funnel his eclectic musical background into his compositions, fusing Jazz and Classical with Popular, Funk, Hip-Hop, Rock, and Gospel. His compositions have been performed by ensembles at the Eastman School of Music, New York University, the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, Youngstown State University, Seton Hill University, and Westminster College. Stephen has also collaborated with avant-garde jazz artist Roscoe Mitchell, with his project Conversation for Orchestra, which has been performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the SEM Ensemble of Brooklyn, NY. As an educator, Stephen has held instructional positions at all levels of education in diverse areas of music education. He's taught in environments such as summer camp, marching band, K-12 public school and postsecondary applied music and academic subjects. He is currently employed by the Wicomico County Board of Education as a choir director at Wicomico High School and at Youngstown State University as an adjunct faculty. He has previously taught at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore as an adjunct instructor. Stephen is an alumnus of Youngstown State University ('16, MM – Jazz Studies) and Seton Hill University ('14, BM – Music Education). He has studied composition and arranging under Ryan Truesdell, Dr. David Morgan, Dr. John Marcinizyn, and Dr. Ted DiSanti. He's had a wide array of performance studies under Chad Lefkowitz-Brown, Dr. Kent Engelhardt, Dr. John Seybert, Eric DeFade, Lisa Thackrah (reeds), Dr. Alton Merrell, Theron Brown (jazz improv), and Curt Scheib (voice).