Steve Lehman

Saxophonist, composer, educator, and scholar Steve Lehman is a forward-thinking musician with broad musical knowledge from classical to jazz, and a bent toward performing avant-garde and modern creative jazz. Born in New York City, Lehman studied saxophone in high school and eventually earned his B.A. in composition in 2000, and his M.A. in composition from Wesleyan University in 2002. From 2002-2003, Lehman studied in France as a Fulbright scholar researching how African-American experimental composers were received in France in the 1970s. While in college, Lehman studied with multi-reed player Anthony Braxton, and saxophonist Jackie McLean at the Hartt School of Music. As a performing artist, he has worked with a bevy of similarly inclined musicians including pianist Dave Burrell, bassist Mark Dresser, pianist Vijay Iyer, saxophonist Oliver Lake, and others. In 2001, Lehman released his debut album as a leader, Structural Fire. He then followed up with several experimental and avant-garde inclined albums including 2005's Demian as Posthuman, 2007's Manifold, 2008's Interface, and 2009's Travail, Transformation and Flow. In 2010, he collaborated with saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa on Dual Identity and returned the following year with Kaleidoscope & Collage featuring two extended pieces performed with bassist/composer Stephen Crump. In 2012, Lehman released the trio album Dialect Fluorescent.