About the Director
Artist-in-Residence Steven Dennis Bodner is in his eleventh year as Music Director of the Symphonic Winds and Opus Zero Band at Williams College, where he also teaches classical saxophone, coaches chamber music, and teaches classes in music fundamentals and aural skills acquisition. He earned a B.A. in philosophy and a B.M. in saxophone performance from Miami (OH) University in 1997, and a M.M. in wind ensemble conducting with academic honors and distinction in performance from New England Conservatory in 1999. He is presently a candidate for his Ph.D. in Music Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he conducted the Youth Wind Ensemble for four years and was Interim Director of Bands, 2002-2003. He has taught at the Hartwick College (2002) and South Shore Conservatory (2003) Summer Music Festivals, as well as in the New England Conservatory Preparatory School (1999-2004); in demand as a guest conductor and clinician, Steven has guest conducted ensembles in Massachusetts, Vermont, Ohio, New York, and Virginia, and he has adjudicated the Maine High School Band and Vermont Music Educators Association Festivals. An advocate for the creation and performance of new music, he has commissioned and premiered numerous works both for wind ensemble and for saxophone. His interpretations have received praise from composers such as Louis Andriessen, Michel van der Aa, Andres Carrizo, Shih-Hui Chen, Stephen Dankner, John Frantzen, Nancy Galbraith, Kyle Gann, Michael Gandolfi, Michael Gordon, Judd Greenstein, David Maslanka, Andrea Mazzariello, Barton McLean, Michael Weinstein, and Pulitzer Prize winner Karel Husa. His primary conducting teachers include Frank Battisti, Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr., Gary Speck, and Gunther Schuller.
Also active as a saxophonist, Steven frequently performs with I/O New Music, which he codirects with Matthew Gold. He has recently also performed with the Williams Chamber Players, the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra, the microtonal ensemble NotaRiotous and at the Manchester Music Festival. He has recently recorded works by David Kechley and Curtis Hugues that will be released on CD in 2011. His primary saxophone teachers were Michèle Gingras and Kenneth Radnofsky.