Steven R. Gerber's music is known for its emotional directness, textural clarity, meticulous craftsmanship, and avoidance of both flashiness and academicism. Over the years, his harmonic language has changed - from the chromatic, dissonant intensity of his early Trio for violin, cello, and piano (commissioned by the Kindler Foundation when he was only 19), through the austerity of such serial works from the 70's as Dylan Thomas Settings and Illuminations, to the tonality of much of his recent music, beginning with the Piano Sonata (1981-82). Yet Gerber's voice has remained recognizably his own, and his music has received considerable recognition in recent years. Most recently, he received a grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., for the National Chamber Orchestra to record his Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto, and Serenade for String Orchestra on Koch International. The conductor will be Piotr Gajewski and the soloists will be cellist Carter Brey and violinist Kurt Nikkanen.

After the American premiere of his Violin Concerto at the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1995 by Nikkanen and the National Chamber Orchestra under Gajewski, the Washington Post called it "a major addition to the contemporary violin repertoire: lyrical, passionate, beautifully tailored to the instrument's character and capabilities...Gerber has revived the spirit of romanticism in this work, with a strong sense of tonal melody and of the dramatic effects and surprises still possible in traditional forms...one of the year's most memorable events." And when Carter Brey premiered his Cello Concerto with the same orchestra and conductor in 1996, the Washington Post said, "Gerber's concerto seems to have what it takes to establish a foothold.... The music is composed with a fine sense of instrumental color.... Gerber has given his soloist some fine, expressive melodies."

Four orchestral works of Gerber will be released on Chandos in June, 2000: Symphony #1, Dirge and Awakening, Viola Concerto, and Triple Overture, performed by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas, Sanderling, conductor, with Lars Anders Tomter, viola, and the Bekova Sisters Trio. Other recent works of his include a Viola Concerto written for Yuri Bashmet and premiered by Bashmet at his summer festival in Tours in 1997; String Quartet #4 for the Fine Arts Quartet, premiered by them in Milwaukee in 1996; two works for Tatyana Grindenko, who has given numerous performances of Gerber's Violin Concerto in the U.S., Russia, and Estonia; and two works for the London-based Bekova Sisters Trio.

In addition to his success in the United States, Mr. Gerber has becomes perhaps the most often-played living American composer in the former Soviet Union, which he has toured 10 times since 1990, and where he has received literally dozens of orchestral performances and numerous concerts of his solo and chamber music. Recent recordings of his music include Une Saison en Enfer, a cantata for chorus, baritone solo, and piano performed on CRI by The New Calliope Singers with Will Parker, baritone; two works for solo violin on Curtis Macomber's solo album on CRI, Fantasy and Three Songs Without Words; and Elegy on the Name "Dmitri Shostakovich" on the French label, Suoni e Colori.

Gerber was born in 1948 in Washington, D.C., received degrees from Haverford College and from Princeton University, where he received a 4-year fellowship, and now lives in New York City. His composition teachers included Robert Parris, J. K. Randall, Earl Kim, and Milton Babbitt. He is a member of BMI and a board member of The American Composers Alliance.