We are honored to welcome Steve Frank as our 2023 Elementary All-County Band Conductor!
Steve Frank has enjoyed a long career in music education, with over forty years of experience as a band and jazz band director at the elementary, middle, high school, college, and university level, including ten years as a teacher in the music education department of the Setnor School of Music, Syracuse University. He also served as Education Program Director for the internationally acclaimed Syracuse Jazz Fest (Frank Malfitano, Executive Director) from 2003 through 2013.
He has studied as a trombone performance major at the doctoral level at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, N.Y., and holds a M.M. in Music Performance from Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio, and a B.M. in Music Education from the Crane School of Music, Potsdam, New York.
Among his many awards and honors, Steve was inducted into the Syracuse Area Music Awards (SAMMY) Hall of Fame as the 2010 Music Educator of the year. In 2006, he received a special award granted by International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) in recognition of his “outstanding contributions” and “tireless dedication and leadership” in promoting and facilitating scholastic jazz education in Central New York, and in 2002, he was honored to be named an “Outstanding Music Educator in the field of Instrumental Music- Band” by the musicians of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. In 2001, Steve received the Onondaga Community College Faculty Appreciation Award in recognition of his “outstanding and dedicated service to the college.”
As a free-lance professional trombonist, Steve has performed and recorded with groups as diverse as the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Concert Band (Leonard B. Smith, director), The Colorblind James Experience, La La Land, and a multitude of jazz and swing bands. He is also a composer and arranger, with published compositions for elementary concert band (Alfred Music Publishing, C. L. Barnhouse Company) and for trombone and trombone ensemble (Ensemble Publications) among his many works. His instrumental music supplement series, The Good Book, has been used for years by music teachers across New York State. Steve’s composition “Variations on Barnacle Bill, the Sailor” has been performed and recorded by trombonists and tubists from around the world, including Charlie Vernon, bass trombonist of the Chicago Symphony.