Fire Dreams

Born in LaGrange, Illinois, Scott Steidl grew up in Minneapolis. There he studied piano, bassoon, and saxophone and developed an interest in playing jazz. Later as an undergraduate at Brown University, he studied composition with Ron Nelson and continued his activities in the field of jazz as director of the Brown University Stage Band. After graduating from Brown, Steidl studied composition with David Diamond and Elliott Carter at the Juilliard School, earning his Masters and Doctoral degrees in composition. He then completed his education by pursuing his other major interest: medicine. He also holds a doctoral degree in medicine from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and specialty training at Harvard Medical School. His music is rooted in the vernacular of our time and represents the varied influences and rich imagination of the current American culture. His work strikes a balance among contrasting influences. A lover of popular music, jazz, music theater and western classical music, his musical point of view is inclusive rather than exclusive. In a concise description of Scott Steidl's music in The New York Times, John Rockwell characterized his work as "All-American."