ABOUT
Steve Law
‘kaleidoscopically varied works……engagement with melody, impressionistic atmosphere, jazzy syncopation….slowly burning passion’.
Music Web International
Steve Law is a British composer with a unique voice and a gift for memorable melodies. His music combines classical, jazz and pop influences in a popular, expressive modern style which abounds with memorable tunes and catchy rhythm.
Steve is a published arranger and known as one of the most accurate transcribers of piano recordings into sheet music.
Steve was born in London and now lives with his wife in East Sussex, England. He studied music at Bristol University under Raymond Warren and Wyndham Thomas and received a Master’s degree in composition for his jazzy three act opera ‘Heaven on Earth’ which was described as ‘a significant contribution to the genre’.
Steve’s beautiful new Piano Concerto was recorded by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra by pianist Joseph Havlat and conductor David Watkin. It received an award from the Oppenheim-John Memorial Trust and was released on the Navona label distributed by Naxos in 2023.
In 2018 Steve’s songs ‘3 Poems by Lorna Law’ were performed in London by Ferrier Award winning baritone Gareth Brynmor John with the composer at the piano.
His Violin Concerto received it’s orchestral premier in Scotland in 2017 by Mark Wilson with Paul Wood conducting Ayr Camerata.
Steve has composed and recorded six CD albums.
Other compositions include an opera, piano works (including 2 sonatas and ‘Pop Preludes’), songs, chamber pieces, an ‘80s Symphony’.
Steve’s meticulous transcriptions of Dudley Moore’s album ‘Song Without Words’ is published by Faber. He has made many arrangements (piano, instrumental and orchestral), for musicians such as Rena Fruchter, Jack Gibbons (Fats Waller), Brian Dallow and the late BBC Broadcaster Geoffrey Stern which have been performed in the UK and America. Steve is working on a volume for the Gershwin Critical Edition overseen by the Gershwin Initiative at the University of Michigan.
Steve is a versatile pianist and has a long association with the music of Gershwin, Billy Mayerl and Scott Joplin. He has often performed his compositions and arrangements along with favourite composers such as Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Debussy and Prokofiev. He has performed works by contemporaries Lionel Sainsbury, Kapustin and Geoffrey Stern and accompanied singers in jazz, pop and classical music.
In 2012-13 Steve played a series of unique musical tribute concerts recreating the music and jazz playing of Dudley Moore. Steve was invited by Dudley to meet in London in 1999 after Steve dedicated a piano transcription to Dudley of his music for the film Bedazzled. Steve’s song ‘It Isn’t Even If’ from ‘Heaven on Earth’ was also dedicated to Dudley.
Steve has performed throughout the UK and in London at St James Piccadilly, for ‘Classical Partners‘, ‘The Halo Project’, St. George’s Bloomsbury, The Royal National Hotel, St. George’s Pinner, St. Paul’s Hammersmith, the Harrow Museum and St. John’s Harrow. He co-founded Harrow Summer Music in 2014 with pianist-composer Neil Crossland where Steve also performs.