Stephen Katz

A cellist, vocalist, guitarist, and award winning composer, Stephen Katz premiered his cello compositions at Carnegie Recital Hall and performs frequently with the Paul Winter Consort. He is a pioneer in the art of counterpoint strumming techniques for the cello and has developed a repertoire of compositions that incorporate melody and accompaniment into highly rhythmic, uniquely idiomatic cello solos.

In Stephen's Cello Temple events, held in open dance spaces and yoga studios, audients are invited to write, draw, lay on the floor, or get up and move while listening to his improvised and composed music. He also uses live looping electronics to generate dynamic orchestral textures, and has distinguished himself as a composer of tightly composed cello pieces that unfold loop-by-loop in concert.


Stephen has worked extensively with dancers and choreographers, and is composer and music director of Wire Monkey Dance, has collaborated and performed with members of Pilobolus Dance Company, and has been a Visiting Artist at Amherst College. As a cofounder of the cello/movement/theater company Seen & Heard with the late dancer and monologist BJ Goodwin, he literally danced with the cello while accompanying the dramas they played out on stage.


As a film composer, Stephen's score for The Rich Have Their Own Photographers won the Jury Prize Gold Medal for Best Use of Music in a Documentary at the 2007 Park City Film Music Festival. He also scored Two Square Miles, a film about Hudson, NY, which has been broadcast nationally on PBS/Independent Lens.


A native of San Francisco, Stephen received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Illinois and Master of Music degree from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He lives in Haydenville, Massachusetts with his wife Beth and son Olin.