Stephen Harvey

Bio

Stephen Philip Harvey is an African American saxophonist, composer, arranger, and educator whose work integrates jazz, classical, funk, gospel, hip-hop, and contemporary chamber influences. He serves as faculty at Salisbury University and Youngstown State University where he teaches saxophone, clarinet, jazz improvisation, chamber ensembles, and Black American Music and American Popular Music lecture courses. Harvey is also the incoming Music Director at 91.3 WESM, Delmarva Public Media’s jazz and blues radio station, where he will host a daily broadcast and produce programming focused on Black American Music.
Harvey holds a B.M. in Music Education from Seton Hill University and an M.M. in Jazz Studies from Youngstown State University, where he was awarded the Young Scholar Award, the NEXUS Grant, and named a Diversity of Scholarship Master Presenter. His artistic work has earned recognition from the Jazz Education Network (Young Jazz Composers Showcase, 2022), Maryland State Arts Council (Creativity and Professional Development Grants, 2022–2023), South Arts (Jazz Roads Grant, 2022), and Seton Hill University (Distinguished Alumni Leadership Award, 2024).
As the founder of Hidden Cinema Records, Harvey leads several ensembles across varying formats: the Stephen Philip Harvey Jazz Orchestra (SPHJO), SPH+2 (chordless trio), Sphinx (electronic quintet), and the Stephen Philip Harvey Octet (SPH8). His compositions have been performed by the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (UK), University of North Texas, Eastman School of Music, and Peabody Conservatory, among others. In 2021, he collaborated with Roscoe Mitchell on Conversation for Orchestra, performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and SEM Ensemble.
His recordings include Multiversal: Live at Bop Stop (2025), Live at Radio Artifact (2024), Elemental (Live) (2024), Library Card (2024), Sphinx (2023), Elemental (2023), Smash! (2022), and Suite Childhood (2016). His work has been reviewed in DownBeat, Jazz Life, All About Jazz, The Big Takeover, and Dark Blue Notes, with NEA Jazz Master Roscoe Mitchell calling him “an exceptional musician with a very bright future.”