Conductor
STEVEN BYESS
Currently celebrating his 15th season as music director of the North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, Steven Byess is a dynamic and passionate conductor, renowned for his versatility, multi-faceted presence on the podium, passion for music education, and his devotion to promoting a life-long love and enthusiasm for music and the arts. He is recognized for his distinguished musicianship and innovative programming, and has been hailed by critics as "masterful and brilliant," "creating the epitome of instrumental elegance," "a talented interpreter, able to capture the sweep of a piece without neglecting detail," and capturing “the full spirit and vitality of the score perfectly.”
Equally adept with symphonic, opera, operetta, music theatre, and ballet repertoire, Maestro Byess also holds the post of music director of the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra (Oregon) and the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra, and associate music director of the Ohio Light Opera. He formerly held the post of Cover Conductor for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. With the Ohio Light Opera, he has conducted, to critical acclaim, over 575 performances of 80 operas, operettas, and musical theater works, and is featured on 21 CD recordings by Newport Classics, Albany Records, and Operetta Archives.
A prolific conductor of opera from grand to contemporary, his performances include Puccini’s La Bohème and a critically acclaimed production of Robert Ward’s The Crucible at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with Greensboro Opera, Bizet’s Carmen with Emerald City Opera (Colorado), Copland’s The Tender Land and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance with Intermountain Opera Bozeman (Montana), and Weill’s Street Scene and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance with the Eastman School of Music Opera Theatre. Steven has been a guest conductor at the Pine Mountain Music Festival in Michigan for their productions of Le tragédie de Carmen (Bizet/Brook), a highly acclaimed production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide – collaborating with the composer’s daughter Jamie Bernstein as consultant, and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.
In addition to over 60 symphonic performances in the 2020-2021 season, Steven will conduct ballet productions of The Nutcracker, Giselle, and Appalachian Spring, and will collaborate with renowned American composer Ricky Ian Gordon in a production of his opera “27.”
Mr. Byess performs frequently with Russian violinist, and Tupelo favorite, Alexander Markov, and he conducted the U.S. premiere of Markov’s Rock Concerto in Tupelo and subsequently at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Mr. Byess received his Bachelor of Music Degree in classical performance and jazz studies from Georgia State University, and his Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied conducting with Louis Lane and Carl Topilow, bassoon with George Goslee and David McGill, violin with Carol Ruzicka, and piano with Olga Radosavljevich. He attended the Pierre Monteux Memorial School for Conductors under the tutelage of Maître Charles Brück. In addition to his conducting studies with Louis Lane, Robert Shaw, and Carl Topilow, he has worked under the auspices of the League of American Orchestras with such noted conductors as Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, and Otto Werner Mueller. Mr. Byess was an assistant to conductor Robert Shaw at the Shaw Institute in Souillac, France.
Steven Byess is a passionate advocate for the arts, much sought after for his speeches on the arts, music, and education. An important community leader, he has created and organized collaborations with numerous choruses, chamber music ensembles, and festivals of the arts. He wrote, co-directed and is featured in a PBS presentation entitled Count On It!, which is designed for children grades K-3, and shows the correlation of music to mathematics. He is a conductor of the Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute Link Up orchestral education concerts, performing in multiple US communities for over 80,000 children since 2013.
Mr. Byess was chosen by Walt Disney World Entertainment to conduct the 2000 NFL E*TRADE Superbowl Halftime show, featuring the Walt Disney World Millennium Orchestra, Phil Collins, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, Toni Braxton, and Edward James Olmos, where he performed for a television audience of over 88 million viewers.