Stephen Estep
Collaborative pianist, organist, composer, critic, lecturer.
Delivering musical color and poetry to Dayton, Cincinnati, and southwestern Ohio since 1996
Delivering musical color and poetry to Dayton, Cincinnati, and southwestern Ohio since 1996
He is organist and pianist at Sugar Creek Presbyterian Church in Kettering, Ohio, and he keeps active as an accompanist and collaborative coach at Loveland City Schools and Cedarville University, working with musicians from the grade school to the doctoral levels.
Composing and songwriting have interested him since age 12, and he has a symphony, a clarinet sonata (Technical Difficulties, chosen for performance at the International Clarinet Association's ClarinetFest 2012), music for productions of Tuesdays with Morrie, and several dozen classical, gospel, and rock songs to his credit.
The true zenith of his career was as the accordionist in a Mexican gospel group at 16, but he has also played bass, guitar, banjo, lap steel guitar, and keyboards in roots rock/country bands like Dead Horse Revival Hour and the Gem City Ramblers; he has even played the timpani at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, New York. He can also whistle the melody to 'Amazing Grace' and hum a bass line in 1:1 counterpoint -- his party trick (if he ever got invited to parties).
In nearly 20 years as a music critic, he has reviewed over 1000 albums and written several feature articles. His specialty at the American Record Guide is composers from the former Soviet and Eastern Bloc nations, and he has covered everything from classical to gospel, bluegrass to soul, hyperpop to minimalism, cowpunk to hip-hop for The Absolute Sound. He is a proofreader for the DSCH Journal of Shostakovich Studies.
Favorite composers include Dmitri Shostakovich, Evgeny Golubev, Paul Ben-Haim, Gavin Bryars, Kaikhosru Shapuri Sorabji, Paul Creston, Jean Sibelius, Gyorgy Ligeti, and Witold Lutoslawski. Emmylou Harris is his most-loved country singer, and he enjoys musicians like Richard Thompson, Son Volt, Chris Hillman, Nana Mouskouri, Caitlin Cary, Jason & the Scorchers, Mark Knopfler, Ana Moura, Wilco, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Clannad, Jonathan Kane, 100 gecs, Varttina, the Blackeyed Susans, Nanci Griffith, Los Lobos, Muzsikas, Shaylee, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Angelic Gospel Singers, Chetes, Bob Dylan, Skip James, Phish, Massive Attack, Haken, MidSouth, They Might Be Giants, and Tom Waits.
Russian and Soviet history, neuroscience, psychology, autism studies, Indian food, vintage clothing, kayaking, hiking, bicycling, and ferrets are among his non-musical interests.
The true zenith of his career was as the accordionist in a Mexican gospel group at 16, but he has also played bass, guitar, banjo, lap steel guitar, and keyboards in roots rock/country bands like Dead Horse Revival Hour and the Gem City Ramblers; he has even played the timpani at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, New York. He can also whistle the melody to 'Amazing Grace' and hum a bass line in 1:1 counterpoint -- his party trick (if he ever got invited to parties).
In nearly 20 years as a music critic, he has reviewed over 1000 albums and written several feature articles. His specialty at the American Record Guide is composers from the former Soviet and Eastern Bloc nations, and he has covered everything from classical to gospel, bluegrass to soul, hyperpop to minimalism, cowpunk to hip-hop for The Absolute Sound. He is a proofreader for the DSCH Journal of Shostakovich Studies.
Favorite composers include Dmitri Shostakovich, Evgeny Golubev, Paul Ben-Haim, Gavin Bryars, Kaikhosru Shapuri Sorabji, Paul Creston, Jean Sibelius, Gyorgy Ligeti, and Witold Lutoslawski. Emmylou Harris is his most-loved country singer, and he enjoys musicians like Richard Thompson, Son Volt, Chris Hillman, Nana Mouskouri, Caitlin Cary, Jason & the Scorchers, Mark Knopfler, Ana Moura, Wilco, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Clannad, Jonathan Kane, 100 gecs, Varttina, the Blackeyed Susans, Nanci Griffith, Los Lobos, Muzsikas, Shaylee, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, the Angelic Gospel Singers, Chetes, Bob Dylan, Skip James, Phish, Massive Attack, Haken, MidSouth, They Might Be Giants, and Tom Waits.
Russian and Soviet history, neuroscience, psychology, autism studies, Indian food, vintage clothing, kayaking, hiking, bicycling, and ferrets are among his non-musical interests.