Steven Mackey

Steven Mackey, composer (Princeton, NJ), was playing the electric guitar in rock bands based in northern California when he started including the electric guitar and vernacular music influence in his concert music. He regularly performs his own work, including two electric guitar concertos and numerous solo and chamber works. Steven's orchestral music has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco and Chicago Symphonies, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Austrian Radio Symphony, Sydney Symphony, and Tokyo Philharmonic. As a guitarist, Steven has performed his chamber music with the Kronos Quartet, Arditti Quartet, London Sinfonietta, Nexttime Ensemble , Psappha, and Joey Baron. A Grammy Award-winning musician, Steven has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim fellowship, the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award. He has been composer-in-residence at major music festivals, including Tanglewood, Aspen, and the Holland Festival.  Steven is currently Professor of Music and chair of the Department of Music at Princeton University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1985.  He was the recipient of Princeton University’s first Distinguished Teaching Award in 1991. Past Yellow Barn Musician (2010, 2013)