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Saxophonist Steven Temme currently enjoys a musically diverse career in the Washington D.C. area performing with numerous ensembles on all members of the saxophone family.  Steven grew up in Scottsdale, Arizona and made his solo debut with the Tucson Pops at age 18 performing Pierre Max Dubois' Concerto with the orchestra.

 

Steven is a frequent soloist with orchestras and wind bands. He was a concerto soloist with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and Stamford (CT) Symphony in performances of Jennifer Higdon’s Soprano Sax Concerto with the composer in attendance to receive the A.I. DuPont Award.  He was also guest soloist with the Emory University Wind Ensemble and the Atlanta Youth Wind Ensemble at Atlanta Symphony Hall and the New World Center in Miami, performing John Williams' Escapades. Temme was guest soloist with the Wind Orchestra of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia in Skopje, Macedonia during the 37th annual Days of Macedonian Music Festival. He also performed as a chamber musician at this festival in collaboration with a Macedonian string quartet and saxophone ensemble.

 

As an orchestral musician, Steven is a regular substitute musician with The Philadelphia Orchestra and has performed with The National Symphony Orchestra, The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra with the New York City Ballet, and as a regular auxiliary saxophonist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for over 10 years. In the summer of 2018, he toured with that orchestra as part of their United Kingdom and Ireland tour with performances at the International Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall in London, and at the International Concert Series in Dublin, Ireland. Mr. Temme has also participated in recordings and performances with the BSO at Carnegie Hall. He has performed with the Washington Concert Opera Orchestra, The Apollo Orchestra, the Fairfax Symphony, Evansville Philharmonic, Bloomington Pops and the Pan American Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Temme served as auxiliary saxophonist with the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Verbier, Switzerland where he performed with the orchestra as well as in solo recital and in live broadcast on Radio Suisse-Romande. He has worked under such esteemed conductors and artists as Michael Tilson Thomas, Marin Alsop, Osmo Vanska, Jose Serebrier, Gerard Schwarz, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Carlos Kalmar, Peter Oundjian, Bramwell Tovey, Leonard Slatkin, Christian Macelaru, Edward Gardener, John Corigliano, and John Williams.  

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He collaborates frequently with L.A. based composer, Ryan Lott, and premiered Lott's Shelter,a multi-media based work at the Ingenuity Festival in Cleveland.  Steven can also be heard on Lott’s 2008 debut album as Son Lux,"At War With Walls and Mazes," which was named one of the best albums of the year by NPR’s All Songs Considered. He also contributed to following albums, “We Are Rising,” and “Lanterns.” Mr. Temme’s bari and tenor saxophone lines add a distinctive sound to Son Lux’s most heard tracks “Easy” and “Lost it To Trying,” with over 22 million plays on Spotify. The group was featured in a production of NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts at NPR studios in Washington D.C.

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He has performed in solo recital at the “Concerts for Peace” series at the Lutheran Church of Geneva in Switzerland, the World Saxophone Congress in Minneapolis, MN and Ljubljana, Slovenia, the Navy Band Saxophone Symposium in Fairfax, VA, and the "Ateliers Recital Series" at the American Church of Paris. In 2003 Steven won a position with “The President’s Own” United States Marine band, and he was later appointed Assistant-Principal.  He has performed several solos with the Marine Band and Marine Chamber Orchestra with the works of David Biedenbender, Jennifer Higdon, William Bolcom, among others. He was a featured soloist on the Marine Band's 2019 tour of the West Coast with 10 performances of Frank Ticheli's, "Falcon Fantasy" from his Saxophone Concerto. He frequently performs with the Marine Saxophone Quartet as soloists and chamber musicians regionally and throughout the country. He has been a guest soloist with the Marine Forces Pacific Band in Honolulu, HI and he served as a guest instructor and performer with Marine field bands in Okinawa, Japan, Hawaii, South Carolina, and Louisiana. Additionally, he performed with the Marine Band on their historic first tour of Japan, which featured the ensemble as guests at the 50th Anniversary of the Japan Band Clinic, Hamamatsu in addition to performances in Yokohama, Kanazawa, and Iwakuni.

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As a clinician and educator, Steven maintains a small private studio in Virginia and leads master classes and clinics at high schools and music schools around the nation during the Marine Band's concert tours and as a guest recitalist and clinician. He has appeared at Indiana University, The Eastman School of Music, The University of Georgia, Emory University, Georgia State University, The University of South Carolina, Furman University, The North Carolina School of the Arts, The University of Florida, Florida State University, The University of North Carolina Greensboro, and Cal State Long Beach among others.

 

Steven won the Saxophone Concerto Competition at Indiana University and the Phoenix Symphony Guild Concerto Competition, allowing him to study at Interlochen Arts Camp with American saxophonists John Sampen and Russell Peterson. He was first-prize winner in the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Competition (now Young Arts) in Miami, Florida.  He was named a Yamaha Young Performing Artist, he was a semi-finalist as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and was a finalist in the North American Saxophone Alliance Young Artists Competition. He received his training at the Conservatoire a Rayonenment de Region Cergy-Pontoise in Paris, France, and at the Indiana University Jacob’s School of Music. His principal teachers included Jean-Yves Fourmeau, Dr. Eugene Rousseau, Dr. Michael Hester, Brett Haglin, and Arno Bornkamp.

 

The information presented for this web publication has been prepared solely by the author and neither “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, the U.S. Marine Corps nor any other component of the Department of Defense of the U.S. Government has endorsed this material.