The son of Salvation Army officer parents, Steve received nearly all of his early music training in SA bands and vocal groups. He first joined the National Capital Band as a teenager in 1974 and has served several stints with the band in the 1980s and 90s, playing on many of the band’s recordings. He has also served with several other SA bands, including the Atlanta Temple Band and Southern Territorial Band, and was bandmaster of the Prince George’s Corps Band from 1988 to 1991.

Steve retired in 2004 after a 25 year career in military bands, including eleven years as principal euphonium of the U.S. Marine Band in Washington, D.C. In addition to hundreds of performances with the band at the White House and in support of the President, he was a featured soloist on several of the band’s national concert tours, summer and chamber concerts, and served as principal euphonium on the band’s tours of Norway, England, the Soviet Union, and Switzerland. He also played on more than fifteen Marine Band recordings and was a featured soloist on the band’s recording Charles Ives’s America.

In addition to being an active free-lance musician, Steve teaches at the University of Maryland, College Park, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Washington Bible College. He is also music director of Dominion Brass, a Christian professional brass ensemble that performs in the Washington metro area.

Steve received his bachelor’s degree in trombone performance from the University of Maryland, and his Master’s and Doctoral degrees from the Catholic University of America. He resides in Bowie, Maryland with his wife Janine, a federal lobbyist for the Coca-Cola Company, and the youngest of their three children, Jessica.