Stephen Holowitz teaches music at A. B. Lucas Secondary School in London and is Director of Music at St. James Westminster Anglican Church. He has received his formal musical training at Lakehead University and at the University of Western Ontario.
Stephen is a native of Thunder Bay where he led a number of jazz groups in the area, the most notable of which was “Occasional Jazz”. He moved to London in 1983, where he completed a Bachelor of Music in Performance (Organ and Church Music) and a Bachelor of Education (Music, Dramatic Arts). He has been a featured performer with the London Encore Concert Band , Orchestra London, Brassroots, London Pro Musica, the Karen Schuessler Singers, and Herencia Latina.
Stephen is keyboardist and co-composer along with Oliver Whitehead for “The Antler River Project” a London ensemble which blends jazz, world music and contemporary composition into a unique musical experience. The group has premiered a set of songs based on the poems of James Reaney and has presented an original musical suite inspired by “The River Project”. Recently Oliver and Stephen collaborated to compose the music for the play “Colleening” produced by AlvegoRoot Theatre. For this production they created a number of song settings of poems by the London poet Colleen Thibaudeau .
Stephen can also be seen and heard performing with Denise Pelley, Paul Stevenson and the contemporary folk group “Celtic Shift”
Stephen has recorded two CDs of original arrangements of traditional hymns and gospel music and has composed music for the Amabile Youth Choir, Project Sing, and the Grand Theatre .