Autumn Concert Series: Steve Torok

The Library’s Autumn Concert Series takes place on Fridays from September 6 to October 25. Each concert will begin at 1 p.m. in the Winn Room. Doors will open 15 minutes prior to the performance. On October 4 we welcome Steve Torok on the saxophone with a jazz performance we know you’ll be captivated by.

Steve Torok has performed with Stevie Wonder, Usher, The Temptations, Adam Levine, Jamey Johnson, Four Tops, Sheila E, Barry Manilow, O’Jays, Whispers, Mary Wilson, Brian Bromberg, Pete Escovedo, Taj Mahal, Toni Tennille, Tony Orlando, and Bob Florence, among others. His saxophone playing and arrangements have been featured on numerous national recordings, including the hit TV shows The Voice and American Idol. He has written and recorded jingles that have aired for CNN International’s audience. Notable artists, including Fred Wesley, Kenny G, Ernie Watts, Tom Scott, Mike Stern, Brian Bromberg, and Carmen Bradford, have performed his arrangements. His work is featured on contemporary jazz CDs, such as Point of View (1998) and This Is Gospel: Inspirational Jazz (2001). Steve created original music for a concert-length dance work entitled A-Scent Between Stream and Consciousness in 2014, revised and restaged in 2018. In 2017, Steve adapted and arranged the music of Prince for the modern dance work Prince 2 Prince, which was modified and restaged in 2019. His recording, Eye to Eye, co-produced by Dan Siegel, represents an array of Steve’s works: originals, arrangements of standards, arrangements of Star Wars music (commissioned and premiered live for Lucasfilm, Ltd.), and music with elephant percussionists. Eye to Eye is a Global Music Award Winner for composition and originality/creativity. The recording has been featured on San Diego’s Jazz 88.3, the international Star Wars podcast Coffee with Kenobi, and positively reviewed by JAZZed Magazine and the websites Jazz Corner, No Depression, and AXS. Steve was also profiled with a feature article in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Steve is an award-winning faculty member at MiraCosta College in Oceanside, CA. He teaches saxophone, improvisation, music theory, and history and directs MOJO (MiraCosta Oceanside Jazz Orchestra) and the Jazz Collective. In 2023, 2022, and 2017, the premiere jazz publication Downbeat named MOJO the Large Jazz Ensemble Winner among community college bands in the national Downbeat Student Music Awards. MOJO received 2015, 2016, 2018, 2021, and 2023 Downbeat Student Music Awards for Outstanding Large Jazz Ensemble Performance. Additionally, the Jazz Collective received 2023 and 2017 Downbeat Student Music Awards for Outstanding Small Jazz Combo Performance. MOJO has received letters of commendation from the United States Congress and the California Legislature. Steve was selected as a clinician for the 2019 JEN (Jazz Education Network) Conference in Reno, and the Jazz Collective was invited to premiere a specially commissioned work. MOJO was a featured performer for the 2023, 2017, and 2015 JEN Conferences in New Orleans and San Diego. Steve was a presenter at the 2017 and 2015 JEN Conferences and the 2018 National College Music Society Conference in Vancouver and was invited to present at the 2019 international conference in Belgium. Steve taught in London in 2019 as a prestigious Study Abroad Program faculty member.

Steve holds a BFA in saxophone performance from Carnegie Mellon University and an MM in Jazz Studies from the University of Southern California. He has achieved ABD status in the music education doctoral program at Boston University. Steve is proud to be a Ligaphone artist and uses Ligaphone reeds and ligatures.

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