Meet the Conductor of the Tupelo Symphony Orchestra 40th Season Celebration

The extraordinarily varied career of Steven Byess takes him not only to the stages of symphony orchestras and opera companies, but also to the stages and genres of Broadway, jazz and television. He is a dynamic conductor and has been hailed by critics as "masterful and brilliant," "lush and bracing," "creating the epitome of instrumental elegance" and "a talented interpreter, able to capture the sweep of a piece without neglecting detail."

In addition to his role as Music Director of the Tupelo Symphony Orchestra, he also holds the posts of Cover Conductor for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Opera Conductor for the Cleveland Institute of Music and California State University - Los Angeles, Conductor at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel and the former Music Director of the Ohio Light Opera where he conducted, to critical acclaim, over 400 performances of 50 diverse operas, operettas, and musical theater works. With the Ohio Light Opera, Mr. Byess is featured on twelve CD recordings by Newport Classics, Albany Records, and Operetta Archives including Johann Strauss' A Night In Venice, Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta, Emmerich Kàlmàn's Autumn Maneuvers, Countess Maritza, Das Veilchen vom Montmartre, and Der Güte Komerad, Schubert's Das Dreimäderlhaus, Rudolph Friml's The Vagabond King, Sigmund Romberg's Maytime, and Sullivan's The Sorcerer.

In the summer of 2007, Mr. Byess returned to the Pine Mountain Music Festival in the upper peninsula of Michigan to lead a new production of Leonard Bernstein's Candide, and he also returned to Israel to conduct a critically acclaimed production of Puccini's La Bohème at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv. He will return to the Pine Mountain Festival in June 2008 to direct a production of Bizet's Carmen, and return to Israel in July to lead a production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut. Mr. Byess conducted the members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in a performance at the National Flute Association convention in August and the members of the Cleveland Orchestra in a memorial concert for oboist John Mack in November. In December 2007, Mr. Byess will conduct a third tour of the U.S. with the Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra from Krakow, Poland, and in May 2008 he will return to Taipei, Taiwan, Nanning, China and Okayama, Japan to lead orchestras in each city. Additional guest conducting for 2007-2008 include a return engagement as guest conductor for the Georgia Bach Festival and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, and opera productions of Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), L'enfant et les sortilèges (Ravel), Amahl and the Night Visitors (Menotti), and El Niño Judio (Luna). Mr. Byess was formerly on the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Music in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and he previously held conducting posts with the Atlanta Ballet and the Augusta Symphony Orchestra.

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 also attended the Pierre Monteux Memorial School for Conductors under the tutelage of Maître Charles Bruck. Mr. Byess was an assistant to conductor Robert Shaw at the Shaw Institute in Souilliac, France.

Steven Byess is a passionate advocate for the arts, much sought after for his speeches on the arts, music, music education and general education. An important community leader, he has created and organized frequent and annual collaborations with numerous choruses, chamber music ensembles, and festivals of the arts. He also 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.