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Every show from Stephanie Steele is a chance to hear the world premiere of a brand new composition. Jazz standards watch out - she can't seem to just leave them alone. She’s constantly dressing them up with modern grooves or delightfully surprising harmonies. And that’s not even mentioning her original music. Those melodies are so memorable you’ll be humming them on the car ride home. 

 

When she’s not at the piano working out a new tune, she’s doing her best to inspire the next generation of musicians. Between private lessons and group jazz classes, there are 40+ students coming through her studio doors every week. In addition to running a busy private studio, Stephanie is also on faculty at Whitman College as a Studio Music Instructor. As a guest artist and clinician, she's been honored to work with college students from across Washington state at Yakima Valley College and Central Washington University.

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Stephanie's strength as an educator reaches beyond her own classroom, with her music theory book series, Music Theory You Should Know… Before Learning to Improvise. These step-by-step workbooks help young musicians unravel the basic building blocks of music. Level 1 teaches music theory fundamentals like chords, scales and chord progressions. Level 2 dives deeper into jazz harmony and improvisation. The books have received positive reviews from presentations at local (Tri-Cities MTNA) and statewide (WSMTA) music teacher conferences. 

 

Around the Mid-Columbia region, you can catch Stephanie playing at venues such as At Michele’s, The Emerald of Siam, The Princess Theatre, Tagaris, Avennia, Hamilton Cellars, and more. She’s usually performing with the Stephanie Steele Quintet+, or The New Normal. As Stephanie’s longest running group, the Quintet+ premiers most of her original works. The New Normal is an all-women group aimed at empowering young, female musicians in the Tri-Cities, and performs arrangements created by all members of the group. And because being on stage clearly isn’t enough time to talk about jazz, you can also hear Stephanie on the airwaves from time to time as a fill-in radio host for KNKX and Jazz24.