Steven Mackey

Steven “Steve” Mackey (born February 14, 1956) is an American composer, guitarist, and music educator. Biography As a musician growing up listening to and performing vernacular American musics as well as classical music, Mackey’s compositions are influenced by rock and jazz, though in an avant-garde vein. He favors the electric guitar and frequently performs his own compositions for the instrument, which include a concerto for electric guitar and orchestra (Tuck and Roll) and two works for electric guitar and string quartet (Physical Property and Troubadour Songs). As an electric guitar soloist, he has performed with the Kronos Quartet (Short Stories), the Arditti Quartet, New World Symphony, Dutch Radio Symphony, and London Sinfonietta. Among Mackey’s notable awards include a Guggenheim fellowship, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, two awards from the Kennedy Center for the performing arts, and the Stoeger Prize for Chamber Music by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Miami performing arts center acknowledged his contributions to orchestral music with a special career achievement award, the Koussevitzky Foundation