Press
Review of Miss Wheatley’s Garden
I am so pleased with your and Mr. Steichen’s interpretation of the songs. It was truly inspired, emotionally moving and truly artistic. I think that Steichen’s performance captured the true essence of each song unlike any pianist that I have heard play these. His depiction of the “spirit of the beloved” (motive) was breath taking in “A Winter Twilight”. His approach to the accompaniment of Songs for the People was “spot on.” And his dynamic contrasts within each song appeared to be dictated by the text, harmonies and score. He was truly masterful in his interpretation!
Hear the performance here:
https://streaming.uco.edu/media/FACS+-+Voice+Faculty/0_szf9l9fx/27106841
(Mr Steichen’s performance begins at 1:01:40)
- Dr. Rosephanye Powell
Longview Symphony names new conductor | Read Article
“We knew we wanted to change things up a little bit, be true to our roots, but maybe go in a little bit different direction,” McFaul said. He noted the popularity of Downtown Live concerts and other event-driven activities in Longview that are family friendly. The symphony wants to provide something that’s “cultural arts, fine arts,” but also approachable for the community.
- Jo Lee Ferguson
King and I Review
- Bruce Pomahac
KERN: Sally | Read Article
The main attraction here is Kern’s score …Gerald Steichen, a specialist in show music of this era, conducts it with a lovingly authentic hand.
- Eric Myers
Maestro begins new traditions in MSO’s 40th season | Read Article
The concert was well received by an enthusiastic audience that has heartily embraced the versatility of the new maestro.
- KATHERINE WALDEN
King & I Charlotte
On behalf of our local musicians and myself, I just needed to take a moment to thank you for putting Jerry Steichen on the road with K&I. It is a joy for us all here to be making music with a consummate musician and conductor at the podium; who also knows how to get the sounds that both he and the show desires through positive suggestion and encouragement. Bravo.
The only drag for Charlotte is that our week’s run is now half over.
- Phil Thompson
BWW Interview: Theatre Life with Gerald Steichen | Read Article
Regarded as one of America’s most versatile conductors, Gerald’s career has taken him all over the world conducting everything from opera and classical music to Broadway musicals.
- Elliot Lanes
Gerald Steichen named Music Director of the Macon Symphony Orchestra | Read Article
“We received such a favorable response from our musicians and from the community when Jerry was here,” said Sheryl Towers, CEO of the MSO. “We are very fortunate that he will bring his extraordinary creativity and passion to the orchestra as we prepare for our 40th Season.”
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‘Viva La Diva,’ Katherine Jenkins at the Café Carlyle | Read Article
Café Carlyle doesn’t immediately come to mind as a venue for Jenkins’ voice, but it works. It helps soften her and her personality is quite endearing. The patter and playful banter director Steichen made the setting feel like being in their living room. She reminisced about being a new mom and the pain of her father’s death when she was fifteen, singing “O Sole Mio” as a touching tribute to him.
- Katherine Kitt
Katherine Jenkins at the Café Carlyle | Read Article
A few minutes before showtime, the evening’s accompanist, Jerry Steichen, took his seat at the piano and immediately struck up a conversation, no doubt intended to relax us both. “Let me know if either of you want to come up here and take a turn,” he said with a devilish laugh.
- Peter Matthews
Voce di meche: Feel the Kern | Read Article
The excellent Music Director Jerry Steichen not only shone in his playing of the reduced score, but also narrated the omitted parts of the story from the piano. He is an engaging presence.
- Meche Kroop
HERBERT: The Only Girl | Read Article
Gerald Steichen conducts the 17-piece pit band with the perfect idiomatic period touch.
- Eric Myers
Thanks for helping the RSO spread holiday joy! | Read Article
Music makes the season, and supporters and sponsors of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra made the season especially bright last weekend when Music Director & Conductor Gerald L. Steichen and friends delighted shoppers at Deborah Ann’s Sweet Shoppe with live music ringing throughout the candy store and ice cream parlor!
- Susan Dumont-Bengston
The sweet sounds of the RSO at Deborah Ann’s Sweet Shoppe | Read Article
On Saturday, December 5, the uplifting sounds of the season were ringing throughout Ridgefield when Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra Music Director & Conductor Jerry Steichen and friends brought their instruments to Deborah Ann’s Sweet Shoppe on Main Street during the annual Holiday Stroll.
- Susan Dumont-Bengston
“Reviews from Albany,” The Only Girl | Read Article
“The score is very pleasant without having many really memorable numbers, but it is conducted with a passion by Gerald Steichen. Well worth the hearing, especially for local theatre groups looking for something out of the ordinary to perform.”
- Frank Behrens
Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra – October 3, 2015 | Read Article
“Steichen and his musicians did full justice to the music’s colorful combination of energetic rhythmical cadences and beguilingly orient-flavored lyricism, with particular kudos for percussion, solo woodwind voices, and brass.”
- Courtenay Caublé
Phoenicia Festival of the Voice – 2015 Festival Wrap Up | Read Article
Follow the “Read Article” link to see the 2015 Phoenicia Festival of the Voice Wrap-Up, and see a cameo of Gerald Steichen.
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LOONY’s The Only Girl Recording Released | Read Article
Light Opera of New York’s recording of Victor Herbert’s 1914 comic operetta, The Only Girl, with Gerald Steichen conducting, is released on Albany Records.
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Deer Valley Music Festival Audience Review
“Thank you for an outstanding concert at Deer Valley last night. We were so proud of the orchestra–OUR Utah Symphony! You played with precision and heart. The soloists added so much to our enjoyment of the 4th of July. Patriotism was indeed increased and enjoyed by the thousands in attendance. God Bless America…..God Bless the USA… And God Bless Our Utah Symphony!”
- Anonymous Audience Member
Utah Symphony Pops Conductor ready for Deer Valley Music Festival | Read Article
“This is going to be so much fun,” Steichen told The Park Record during a telephone call from Longview, Texas. “I got together and rehearsed with Gary Mauer and Elizabeth Southard last week. They are the two vocalists who will perform the program at Deer Valley and they are just so wonderful.”
- Scott Iwasaki
Ridgefield Symphony’s 50th Anniversary Celebration
More than any other concert I’ve attended in the many years I’ve reviewed the organization’s programs, last Saturday evening’s sold-out blockbuster final concert at the high school auditorium of the Ridgefield Symphony’s 50th Anniversary season was a telling reminder of how both amazed and grateful our town’s residents ought to be to have their own Miracle on Main Street.
Unlike show and pop music, which can be enjoyed by anyone at all, including listeners with no musical knowledge whatsoever, art music, which is usually incorrectly dubbed “classical” music, is a bit like a spoken language, which can sound either pretty or harsh to the ear but can be fully appreciated and enjoyed only by those who are familiar enough with it to know what is being said. No mystery, therefore, that in a society where school music and other “arts” programs have been curtailed or entirely eliminated to provide more money in support of “practical” subjects like math and science, art music has declined in popularity to the point where even in the New York Metropolitan Area there are only two radio stations, both of them listener supported, where one can go to hear it.
Reviews of musical performances have suffered similarly. Important to both performers and musical organizations because they are thankfully still regular features in world-class papers like The New York Times, but the newsroom editors of small local papers tend to label them as “fluff”, with no space available for them in publications whose space is essentially limited to social, political, sports and schools pieces, announcements of upcoming local events, and commercial and classified ads.
Hence the specialness of Ridgefield’s Symphonic Miracle, which is real evidence that our town actually has a sizeable community of both practically and culturally educated music lovers.
Sponsored by Harold Spratt in memory of his late wife Cora, Maestro Gerald Steichen’s ambitious program included Franz Schubert’s Rosamunde Ballet Music and Beethoven’s monumental Ninth Symphony, for which Steichen was joined by a wonderful quartet of vocal artists (soprano Theresa Santiago, mezzo-soprano Melissa Parks, tenor A.J. Glueckert, and baritone Ron Loyd), along with the Fairfield County Chorale under its music director David Rosenmeyer.
The orchestra played the Schubert ballet music both flawlessly and gracefully under Steichen’s skillful interpretative management of nuances and phrasing, and, with only a slight decline in precision in the slow third movement, the performance of the Beethoven’s glorious Ninth Symphony, a doubly wondrous work in view of the fact that Beethoven conceived it entirely in his mind after he had become totally deaf, was a triumph. The Fairfield County Chorale performed flawlessly, and the superb guest quartet handled Beethoven’s difficult score, conceived in Beethoven’s imagination more as an instrumental than a vocal quartet, with virtuosic ease. Vocal highlights included baritone Ron Loyd’s dramatic declamatory introduction of the final movement’s choral section and A.J. Glueckert’s beautiful delivery of the movement’s long tenor solo.
The very long standing ovation, replete with rousing applause, loud cheers, and whistles, suggested that those in attendance are likely to subscribe or re-subscribe for the RSO’s just- announced 2015-2016 season, which promises exceptionally fine programming of proven masterpieces. Those of you who weren’t present should do likewise in support of our town’s musical treasure.
- Courtenay Cauble
The Merry Widow | Read Article
The sumptuous orchestra, conducted by Gerald Steichen…
- Jennifer Goltz-Taylor
Celebration sets tone for comedic ‘The Merry Widow’ | Read Article
Conductor Gerald Steichen’s tasteful work in the pit contributed to the overall polish of this Widow.
- George Bulanda
Natoma! | Read Article
- ERIC MYERS
Anchorage Opera’s uncomplicated ‘Madame Butterfly’ | Read Article
“The orchestra, conducted by Gerald Steichen, nicely executed the several long, atmospheric instrumental sections that set the mood in the work.”
- Mike Dunham
Dancing with the RSO All-Stars | Read Article
“Just as big changes are coming for ABC-TV’s “Dancing With the Stars,” with sports reporter Erin Andrews in as the new sidekick to Tom Bergeron, Ridgefield’s own beloved “Dancing” event is bringing major changes to its fifth and final season.”
- Lisa McCormick
Utah Symphony with Brian Stokes Mitchell (November 2013) | Read Article
“Mitchell shared the stage with his frequent partner, pianist Tedd Firth, and a concert by the two is a rare treat. But when they are joined by the Utah Symphony, the performance becomes exhilarating.”
- Blair Howell, Deseret News
Ridgefield Symphony wins Business Supports the Arts Award | Read Article
The Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra and Danbury Hospital were recognized for our collaborative CD of Lullabies from around the world, “Sweet Dreams”. Created for patients in the Spratt Neo-Natal ICU of Danbury Hospital, the CD features members of the RSO, and guest stars from the worlds of opera and musical theater who donated their talents for this incredible project.
- Jerry Steichen
Orchestra opener: A memorable experience (October 2013) | Read Article
“With its varied but complementary styles, Music Director Gerald Steichen’s fine program included Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly’s Dances of Galanta, Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, and Beethoven’s great Symphony No. 7. Violinist Jennifer Frautschi was Maestro Steichen’s splendid guest soloist.”
- Courtenay Caublé, Hersam Acorn
Ballroom with a Twist Review (January 2013) | Read Article
“The Utah Symphony and conductor Jerry Steichen seemed to be having a blast as they skillfully navigated from pop to country to classical to Latin.”
- Tyler Hinton, BroadwayWorld.com
Rhapsody in Blue Ogden Review (November 2012) | Read Article
“Steichen, always a delightful presence when holding a baton for the Utah Symphony, gamely joined Vroman singing “I’d Rather Charleston” — even daring a few dance steps himself. In his charming, conversational manner, he also gave a few helpful notes between pieces to help newcomers to the music understand Gershwin’s epic role in popular music.” “The orchestra had rhythm in spades, playing a fun night of music by George Gershwin, the king of the Great American Songbook.”
- Linda East Brady, The Ogden Standard Examiner
Michael Cavanaugh Review (September 2012) | Read Article
“The more successful moments of the evening came during the slower and softer numbers, such as “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” and “New York State of Mind,” where the orchestra’s string section warmly caressed the songs without overshadowing them. It was also a showcase for the orchestra’s horn section, which often doesn’t get to shine during masterworks.”
- David Burger, The Salt Lake Tribune
Deer Valley Pink Martini Review (August 2012) | Read Article
“The Utah Symphony fit nicely into the thick of the action, making songs like the fiery “Yolanda?” sound like Pink Martini on steroids. Conductor Jerry Steichen kept the partnership together and in balance.”
- Celia Baker, The Salt Lake Tribune
Simply Sinatra Review (February 2012) | Read Article
“The Utah Symphony, under conductor Jerry Steichen’s baton, rose to the occasion. Adding an exuberant saxophone section helped the brass section really shine on the big-band standards, and the swelling strings were reminiscent of sweet tunes you listen to on a crackling turntable. Steichen has performed with Lippia before, and it showed.”
- Hillary Bowler, The Deseret News
Profile Story about Jerry Steichen (February 2012) | Read Article
- Hillary Bowler, The Deseret News
Cirque de la Symphonie Review (September 2009)
“Steichen seemed like the perfect bridge between the Cirque and symphony. He formed a strong rapport with the audience, not only through his dynamic personality, but also his energetic interpretations of the music… It was easy to watch him and watch the performers in this delightful performance.”
- Scott Iwasaki, The Deseret News
Profile Story about Jerry Steichen (November 2009) | Read Article
- Catherine Reese Newton, The Salt Lake Tribune
Deer Valley Chamber Orchestra Review (July 2009)
“Principal pops conductor Jerry Steichen conducted, and he elicited wonderfully expressive playing from the orchestra that complemented Selberg’s romantically charged approach.”