Steve Taylor has been a violinist in the Louisville Orchestra for more than 40 yrs. A native of Toledo, Ohio he graduated from the Univ. of Toledo in violin performance and was a member of the Toledo Symphony while in College. He later joined the Louisville Orchestra and attended graduate school at the Univ. of Louisville. He studied conducting/ jazz arranging and violin at the Univ. of Louisville and continued his conducting studies at the Conductor’s Summer Institutes at the Univ. of West Virginia and at the Univ. of South Carolina. Mr. Taylor also was a founding member of the Ky. Center Chamber Players and taught for 10 yrs. as an instructor of violin and viola at Bellarmine University. He also founded the Louisville Sinfonietta in 1987 and conducted that orchestra for several years. Enjoying broad musical interests Mr. Taylor performs regularly as a violinist of the Swing Time Moods Band and also is the violinist/leader/arranger of a French Cabaret Band called Riviera.

Mr. Taylor also is the 1st violinist with the Interlude String Quartet and maintains an active schedule booking events with his music agency, SMT Music. Two years ago Steve co-founded the performing arts series Music at St. Paul, which features chamber music and orchestra music with area professional musicians. Mr. Taylor also enjoys performing in one of the string quartets in the education outreach for the Lou. Orchestra. He gets to use a bit of his latent literary talent as he writes scripts and music for the quartet to use in their presentations. An active arranger and composer Mr. Taylor has had his music performed by the Columbus Symphony and the Louisville Orchestra. Non Music activities: During the off season Mr. Taylor enjoys hiking and fishing at a family cabin in Ontario, Canada. “There’s always plenty of work to do building and repairing the outbuildings and maintaining the cabin, which I enjoy.”

I started learning the violin when I was in 4th grade. I attended Nathan Hale elementary School in Toledo, Ohio. I started taking private lessons in 6th grade. I guess I started taking my violin studies more seriously by my sophomore year in High School. I had been involved in chamber music playing from 7th grade all the way through my senior year in High School. Mr. Kenneth Holland was a big influence on me coaching me and my colleagues from a young age all the way through my senior year. I learned how to be a good listener to others by playing chamber music. I still enjoy playing in a string quartet setting which I do frequently since my gig quartet plays for weddings and private functions. Another of my “music hobbies” is arranging songs and sometimes composing original music for my string quartet. I’ve always been fascinated by the art of composition and arranging music. An arranger is similar to a chef. You have certain ingredients to work with and the choices you make and skill you employ determine the success or failure of the finished work, be it a cake or a composition ! I’ve loved the violin from a young age. I just like way it sounds and there is so much beautiful music written for the instrument. I also played trumpet in junior high school. I was first chair trumpet and concertmaster of our Regional Orchestra when I was in 8th grade! I used to enjoy playing Tijuana Brass songs on the trumpet. I still get it out in summers and play taps on the lake up in Canada where we have a family cabin. The sound echoes across the lake.

Music opens the doors to many opportunities and I was able to study one summer in Salzburg, Austria at the Mozarteum. That was a rigorous experience and I practiced very hard. I learned and memorized the Mozart D major Concerto with cadenza and performed it in just 3 plus weeks ! Later my friend and I traveled all over Europe with a Eurail Pass. That was really cool. Met a lot of nice people and saw the sights. After College I had a friend who was studying with the principal Trumpet player of the Louisville Orchestra. Leon Rapier. He told me there was a very good professional orchestra here so I auditioned in the fall and luckily was accepted. The Orchestra did a lot of recording of contemporary music in those days under Jorge Mester so we were really busy practicing all the time. Later under Lawrence Leighton Smith we toured to Mexico City and also played at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Playing the violin in the Louisville Orchestra has been a huge part of my life for many years. I’ve performed on stage with many of the world’s greatest musical artists and enjoyed working with my talented colleagues of the Orchestra who continue to inspire me.

Steve is married and his son and daughter in law have two lovely young grandsons that “keep me young”…. I’m looking forward to fishing with them in Canada this summer for the first time. Our cabin is on a lake in northern Ontario. Very rustic. Sort of like a setting of Gilligan’s Island. We have no power except for solar, propane and generator. You take a step back in time when you are there. You learn to appreciate the basic things and become self reliant as you have to do a lot by hand. I really enjoy it.