Steve N. Lewis Jr. has enjoyed a diverse musical career as both a conductor and French hornist. Steve is the Music Director of the Medical Arts Symphony of Kansas City and the Midwest Chamber Ensemble. Under his direction the Midwest Chamber Ensemble won Third Place in the American Prize. Lewis has collaborated with such guest artists as pianists Charl Louw, Mary Rose Norell, and Keith Kirchoff, French hornist Brett Hodge, soprano Sarah Tannehill Anderson and countertenor Jay Carter. He has conducted the Kansas City Metro Opera, the Missouri Symphony, OvreArts (PA), the Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City, the Wilson Symphony (NC), the University of Central Missouri Orchestra, and the Emporia State University Chamber Orchestra. Steve attended high school at the North Carolina School of the Arts where he studied French horn with David Jolley. Steve holds degrees from East Carolina University (BM, Theory/Composition) where he studied French horn with Mary Burroughs and the University of Missouri- Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance (MM, Orchestral Conducting) where he studied conducting with Robert Olson and French horn with Ellen Campbell and Martin Hackleman. He was twice awarded the EAMA/Florence Gould Foundation Michael Iovenko Fellowship to study conducting in Paris as part of the European American Musical Alliance at the historic Schola Cantorum. While there Lewis received special mention in both solfege and counterpoint. Steve has attended the South Carolina Conductors Institute and the International Conductors Institute workshops in Round Rock Texas and New York. He has received career and continuing education grants from the ELCA Central States Synod, Anna Sosenko Trust, and the Koch Cultural Trust.
