Stephen Andrew Taylor composes music that explores boundaries between art and science. His first orchestra commission, Unapproachable Light, inspired by images from the Hubble Space Telescope and the New Testament, was premiered by the American Composers Orchestra in 1996 in Carnegie Hall. Other works include the chamber quartet Quark Shadows, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony and premiered in 2001; and Seven Memorials, a half-hour cycle for piano inspired by the work of Maya Lin, featured at Tanglewood in 2006 with pianist Gloria Cheng. The Machine Awakes, a CD of his orchestra, chamber and electronic music was released in 2010 on Albany Records. Paradises Lost, an opera based on a novella by Ursula K. Le Guin, received its Canadian premiere in 2013, conducted by the composer. In 2015 the New York Times called his piano work Variations Ascending, premiered by Ian Hobson, “persuasive and powerful.”

Taylor also works with live electronics in pieces such as Inspiral for contraforte and 4-channel surround sound, premiered by Henry Skolnick in South Korea in 2019; and Ocean of Air (2017) for Detroit Symphony principal trombonist Kenneth Thompkins. He conducts the Illinois Modern Ensemble, and has also appeared as conductor with Sinfonia da Camera, the Nouveau Classical Project, and the Arizona Chamber Music Festival. As a theorist, he has written and lectured on data sonification, György Ligeti, African rhythm, Björk, and Radiohead. In popular music he has collaborated on concerts and albums with Pink Martini, rock singer Storm Large, The Von Trapps, and cabaret/performance artist Meow Meow; his arrangements have been performed by orchestras worldwide, including the Oregon Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony.

Né en 1965, il a grandi dans l'Illinois et a étudié dans les universités Northwestern et Cornell, ainsi qu'au California Institute of the Arts ; ses professeurs incluent Steven Stucky, Karel Husa, Mel Powell, Bill Karlins et Alan Stout. Sa musique a remporté des prix de Northwestern, Cornell, du Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau, de l'American Academy of Arts and Letters, Composers, Inc., du Debussy Trio, de la Howard Foundation, de la College Band Visitors National Association, de la New York State Federation of Clubs de musique, l'Illinois Arts Council, l'American Music Center et l'ASCAP. Parmi ses commandes figurent des œuvres pour l'Université Northwestern, l'Université de l'Illinois, la Syracuse Society for New Music, Pink Martini et l'Oregon Symphony, le Quad City Symphony, le Chicago Symphony, le Quartet New Generation et le New Philharmonic, Piano Spheres et l'American Orchestre des compositeurs. Taylor est professeur à l'Université de l'Illinois à Urbana-Champaign, où il vit avec son épouse, l'artiste Hua Nian.