Steven Naylor

Steven Naylor graduated from Bowling Green State University in 2022, earning undergraduate degrees in performance and composition. A Michigan-native, he graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy in 2017. His mentors have included pianists Laura Melton, Thomas Rosenkranz, Michael Coonrod, and Catherine McMichael, and composers Elainie Lillios, Mikel Kuehn, Marilyn Shrude, and Christopher Dietz. Steven is in high demand as a collaborative pianist in northwest Ohio, and has also presented seven solo piano and composition recitals. A fierce advocate for contemporary music, he performed solo works at the 8th International Conference on Music and Minimalism and virtually at the 2020 BG New Music Festival. He also frequently collaborates with living composers, as with his 2022 recording project New Piano Music from Bowling Green, Vol. 1, recording pieces by five Bowling Green composers. Steven has won collaborative competitions with vocalists (2022 Marjorie Conrad Art Song Competition: 1st place, graduate division; with Carolyn Anderson, soprano) and instrumental partners (2019 Douglas Wayland Chamber Music Competition: 1st place, undergraduate division; with Gretchen Hill, clarinet, and Taylor Francis, flute). His micro-opera Visionary won BGSU’s 2021 Music Composition Competition, and was performed at the 2022 BG New Music Festival. The short film Play Date directed by Kate Schnepf, which Steven scored, premiered at the Cleveland International Film Festival in March 2023. His recent compositions focus on ecological and astronomical themes, and have included works written for the icarus Quartet, the Newphonia Ensemble, the Keynamics piano duo, and the Heidelberg University Single Reed Ensemble. His debut album, idyll, was released in 2021 and features his own solo piano compositions. Steven is a Resident Artist with Toledo Opera, music director of First Presbyterian Church of Perrysburg, OH, and an engraver for St. James Music Press.