Life & Work with Steven Stewart of Owensboro, Ky

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Stewart

Hi Steven, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’ve been interested in music my entire life. My mom likes to say that “the music is in me.” I don’t if that’s true or not, but it’s been a big part of my life since I was little. I tell people all the time, I’m pretty sure I learned to read music before I learn to read actual words. From just before the age of three I expressed interest in playing the violin. My mom’s favorite story to tell about that is of she and my great grandmother sitting on my great grandmother’s back porch having coffee… she says I walked out from the house and said “Mommy, I want to play the violin,” and the rest is history.

Before I would get my hands on a violin though, I was fascinated by the piano. I was almost 4 when I realized that my grandmother had one my mom used to learn on when she was younger. I have a fairly vivid memory of sitting in my grandmother’s front room at the piano with my mom, and her showing me where middle C was, and from there I started picking out simple nursery rhyme tunes such as Mary Had A Little Lamb, Three Blind Mice, and Twinkle Twinkle Littler Star. At around age 8 we got a small Yamaha key board that I very quickly took to. I taught my several of the songs that were programed into it by ear, as well taught myself scales and how to spell and build chords.

Around age 8, we moved to Grayson County, Kentucky (Leitchfield to be precise) and I got my first violin that next year at 9. I’ll never forget it. It was a $75 Oxford violin my mom found at the local Leitchfield flea market. She was as excited to give it me as I was to get it! The day I got it, I taught myself how to hold it, and figured out a bow hold that was comfortable, and very quickly started picking out those same nursery time tunes I had so many years ago.

Shortly after I was gifted that violin I joined the orchestra program through the Grayson County Public School System initially under the direction of Mrs. Paula Lee. Growing up we didn’t really have money for private lessons, so all of the fine details of playing I taught myself from fifth grade until I graduated and went to college. I didn’t know it then, but these formative years would help mold me into the multi-genre player I’ve become today. You see in Leitchfield and the surrounding area Bluegrass Music is very prominent, and fiddle music reigns supreme among the rest. They even held the Kentucky State Fiddle Champion in Grayson County at Rough River for many years. In fact, fiddling is so ingrained in that area they officially named Leitchfield the Fiddling Capital of Kentucky in 2016. So growing up there I learned a lot of bluegrass tunes and a lot of contest tunes. But I always had an intense interest in classical music as well, so I would find myself digging through our orchestra director’s filing cabinets to find any challenging solo piece I could get my hands and do my best to teach it to myself, I went on like that, devouring all of the music I could until my senior year in 2008. Then I found myself preparing for college auditions at Western Kentucky University (WKU) in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

I’ve been getting paid to play music since I was 14. I started out as a wedding violinist, and to this day still play weddings on occasion. It wasn’t until I started college that I was able to really begin my studies and training as a professional level player and musician.

I was awarded a spot in the WKU music department and the Symphony at WKU, and was there from 2008-2015. I completed a BA of Music with a concentration in classical violin, and did most of my master’s work there. Unfortunately though, due to financial and family reasons I wasn’t able to finish my master’s and came up one semester short. But I attained a high level of training in pedagogy and teaching.

While at WKU I had the privilege to study under many wonderful and high quality teachers. My primary violin teacher was Dr. Ching-Yi Lin. She was my first real private teacher, and though we butt heads many a time throughout those years, I wouldn’t be the level of player I am today without her guidance. I also had the opportunity to study under some wonderful violin players by the names of Jordana Greenberg, Ji-Myung Kim, and Melanie Parobek.

During my time at WKU I had the esteem honor of winning the university’s annual concerto contest. I was awarded a performance as a soloist with the WKU Symphony where I performed the Kabalevsky Violin Concerto in C Major. I was also fortunate enough in my time there to be able tour internationally to China with the orchestra where I was privileged to be able to take part in what they called “Cultural Exchange” performances. Essentially, the universities and venues we traveled to would put on performances us based in Chinese folk music or traditional Chinese entertainment and we, in turn, would perform for them. During one of these, I was asked by our our director, Dr. Bill Scott, to perform some Bluegrass music as a soloist for one of these exchanges, and was in turn invited to sit in with the university’s er hu studio where I was exposed to some of the very basic nuances of Chinese folk music.

I did my graduate studies at WKU from 2013-2015. During this time I was given the highest level training in general, and violin specific pedagogy. I was taught I was fortunate enough to have private lessons and master classes with some of the top names in the violin teaching field, as well as the performance industry. Some of these include Mimi Zwieg, Brenda Brenner, Jim Przygocki, Sherry Sinift and Noah Bendix-Balgley. All of them, even though our encounters were brief, opened doors for me in my playing I never would have known were closed.

Even though I was deeply studying classical music with my time at WKU I never let go of my passion for traditional and alternative styles of music. I’ve always reached out to try to find as many different genres of music I can fit the violin into as possible. In doing that, I reached out into the professional music industry, and have been fortunate enough to have been a member of several bands that are (or were) relatively well known in Kentucky and the surrounding states. My first venture was in the local Bowling Green music scene with an established Indie/Americana band called The Lost River Cavemen. I was with them for about two years, and then helped to form a band, also based in Bowling Green, called Southbound 65, who I played with for about a year and a half. After Southbound 65 I was approached by the band leader for an Owensboro, Kentucky based band called Blackford Creek. His name is Dan Hall. I moved out to Owensboro in 2017 where I played with Blackford Creek for about three years before personal circumstances forced me to bow out of that project. After that I decided it was a good idea get to back to my roots and join the deep and rich bluegrass community that thrives in Owensboro. So I joined a traditional, Bill Monroe style Bluegrass band called Kings Highway. Mark Hargis is the band leader for Kings Highway. He’s done a lot over the years to keep the Bluegrass scene alive in this area, and I was proud to be involved with them for the short time I was. After my time with Kings Highway I, along with a couple of friends, founded my current project, Kentucky Shine in early 2020.

In Kentucky Shine I play fiddle and sing the tenor harmony part. I also lend my talents as a song writer to the group. Song writing isn’t ever something I saw myself doing in my youth, but I’m proud to say that I’ve written a lot for Kentucky Shine over the last few years. One of the songs I wrote called that the band graciously decided was worthy of nomination won the 2023 Hollywood Independent Music Award (HIMA) for Bluegrass Song Of The Year. It’s called The Game, it’s a track off our album Night Watch, and is available pretty much everywhere for streaming.

The high levels of each of the musicians in the bands have pushed me to new heights in my capabilities as a violin/fiddle player and performer. They really pushed me to be the multi genre player I am today. I learned very quickly how to weave my classical training into outlaw country, blues, various forms of rock, bluegrass, and even some funk and pop. Because of the level of these players, I’ve had the honor of playing with some of the biggest names, and some living legends in the music industry. Some of the groups I’ve been fortunate enough for my bands to share stages with are:

Marty Stuart
Aaron Lewis
Darius Rucker
Chris Stapleton
Blackstone Cherry
Colt Ford
Confederate Railroad
Tracy Lawrence
Michael Cleveland
Dan Tyminski
Sister Sadie
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Russell Moore and IIIrd Tyme Out
Ricky Skaggs
Kody Norris Show
Fast Track
Ole 60

In addition to my career as a performer I’m also a very passionate educator. I started teaching violin lessons in my late teens and early 20s. While I was at WKU I was heavily involved in the Pre-College String Program which is now the WKU String Academy. After leaving WKU I started teaching privately out of my home in 2019, but over the summer in 2024 I opened a private lessons studio in Owensboro called Cadenza Performance Academy. My teaching goals are simple. While yes, passing on my knowledge of music to those who want to learn it is a huge part of it, a big thing for me is helping others find confidence in themselves, and helping them find their voice not just in music, but in life. I try my best to help show my students, young and old, that music should be fun, and I try to help them reach the highest level they can while maintaining a safe, judgment free environment for them to learn in. I always tell my students mistakes made are just information. We learn from our mistakes in music the same way we do from our mistakes in life. And just like in life, we have to learn to let them go, not give up, and keep moving forward.

I teach all ages from 4 and up. I teach classical violin, multiple styles of fiddle, viola, mandolin, piano, and music theory. People always say that success of the student is the success of the teacher, but I don’t really like that. I very much just passed on tools for my students to do the work with, and they all work very hard. I am fortunate enough that several of my past students have gone on to pursue degrees in music with goals of playing professionally, teaching, becoming music therapists, and even sound engineers. They’ve all worked so hard to achieve the goals they wanted and I couldn’t be prouder of them.

These days, professionally, I’m playing with Kentucky Shine, and sit in with Dan Hall and Blackford Creek, I also play as a hired gun sometimes for friends and colleagues who may be in a pinch. I teach out of my studio at Cadenza Performance Academy. In my personal life, I have a family. An amazing wife and two beautiful children who all support me in my musical endeavors more than I deserve.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I don’t believe that anyone’s road is smooth. There’s always challenges to overcome. For me it’s always been finding the delicate balance between home and work. Any self-employed person will tell you that work is never ending. You always have your phone on, and are always talking to clients and potential clients and doing promotional work. Losing that balance or letting your work life take over is easy to do sometimes and always causes a bump in the road. I’m lucky to have the family I have though, they always slow me down and make me take time off when I need to recharge and refresh when I need it. I couldn’t more thankful for them.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
What I do is music. By trade, I’m a violin player, or a fiddle player. But as an artist, I’m a musician. The difference for me, is this… a player will only play their instrument, a musician will weave their instrument into the music in a way that adds to the music and doesn’t detract form art that’s being created. I’ve made myself known as the violin player who can put the violin in most any genre because I think about the music and the way the instrument has to fit.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I think my biggest thing to say to the readers is never give up. If you want to play music, play music. That goes for anything in life. If you want to do it, do it. There’s always a way to make things happen.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kentuckyshineband.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KentuckyShineBand
• Other: https://www.cadenzaperformanceacademy.com/