Dr. Stephen Black enjoys an active career as a performer and educator. In 1999 he was one of six finalists in the American Guild of Organists Young Artist Competition, and is a winner of the Charles Ives Prize from the Yale University School of Music. Dr. Black has played recitals on the great organs of Washington National Cathedral; St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue in New York City, and Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. He was a featured organ performer at the 2012 American Choral Directors Association Western Division conference in Reno, NV. He currently serves as the assistant dean of the Louisville chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

In addition to his activities as an organist, Dr. Black has conducted over fifty concerts in New York City and Los Angeles. He has served as Artistic Director of the Amuse women’s chamber choir and Central City Chorus in New York City. Dr. Black has conducted large choral/orchestral works from the standard canon such as the Requiems of Brahms, Fauré and Duruflé, the Christmas Oratorio of J. S. Bach, and the Solemn Vespers of Mozart. He has also conducted more eclectic repertoire such as the Requiem of Frederick Delius and the New York City premiere of Carol Barnett’s The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass. Dr. Black has prepared choruses for performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Riverside Church with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Astoria Symphony, and William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the Empire State Youth Orchestra. He has been a guest conductor for the Empire City Men’s Chorus, St. George’s Choral Society, the West Village Chorale, the Association of Connecticut Choruses, the American Opera Project, the National Association of Composers East Coast Chapter, Lincoln Center Theater and HarlemStage.

Dr. Black is currently Instructor of Music and University Organist at Bellarmine University in Louisville. His graduate degrees in music are from Yale University and the University of Southern California.