Steve Metcalf

Steve Metcalf is an administrator, critic, journalist, arts consultant and composer. He writes the weekly Metcalf on Music blog for WNPR.org, and is the curator of the Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series at The Hartt School.

For more than 20 years, beginning in 1982, he was the staff music critic of The Hartford Courant. During that time, via The Los Angeles Times/Washington Post wire service, his feature stories, profiles, and reviews appeared regularly in more than 500 newspapers worldwide, earning a string of awards and prizes. His writings have also appeared in professional periodicals such as Symphony Magazine, Antaeus Review and Opus. In addition he served for several seasons as regular music commentator for NPR’s nationally-distributed program, “Performance Today.”

Prior to joining the Courant, Metcalf was the Assistant Dean of the Hartt School, University of Hartford, where he did his undergraduate and graduate work. The Hartt School honored him as Alumnus of the Year in 1989, and in 2004 elected him to its Board of Trustees. He recently returned to Hartt as Director of Instrumental Studies, and he founded the school’s Richard P. Garmany Chamber Music Series.

Metcalf has also been the music director for a number of regional theater companies, including the celebrated Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. In addition, he has composed the score to the off-Broadway musical comedy "Drat!'' as well as the history-based musical, "A Woman of a Certain Age," which received its world premiere in 2005 at the Ivoryton Playhouse.

He is a contributor to the 25-volume New Grove Dictionary of Music, and to the New Grove Dictionary of Opera. He is also co-author of “Leroy Anderson, a Bio-Bibliography,” recently published by Greenwood Press.

In addition, Metcalf has served as classical music advisor to the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, and as artistic advisor to the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He also has served as a panelist for the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. In 1995, the Connecticut Music Educators Association named Steve its Music Advocate of the Year for his writings in support of music education in public schools.

Along with the board of The Hartt School, Metcalf serves on the board of West Hartford Community Television, and recently completed his term as Arts Representative to the board of the Roberts Foundation. He also was recently elected to the honorary board of Concora (Connecticut Choral Artists).

Finally, he is the keyboardist emeritus for the needlessly loud rock band, Duke and the Esoterics.

Metcalf lives in West Hartford with his wife, Nancy. They have three grown daughters.