The Steve Koven Trio is a Canadian, Toronto-based jazz group. Pianist Koven is joined by long time members, Anthony Michelli on drums and Rob Clutton on bass.
Formed in 1993, the trio has performed world-wide, sharing the stage with such artists as Nancy Wilson, T.S. Monk, John Pizzarelli, and Al Green.
The band has released seven critically-acclaimed albums since their debut, Live at the Senator, in 1997. Astronomers and religious mystics can endlessly ponder the big question: can something come from nothing? Or, they can attend a Steve Koven concert. There, they can listen and watch as Koven explores the piano, inside and out, from the 88 keys to the strings under the hood. Koven can create a piece out of thin air in the time it takes for him to play it.
He can be as experimental as John Cage, as impressionistic as Claude Debussy, or as bluesy as Fats Waller. The common denominators are superb technique and a fresh approach to the music. A mainstay on the Toronto music scene, Koven has performed at festivals and on stages in England, Mexico, China, Japan and other countries around the world.
Venues and Festivals performed at include:
- Shanghai Concert Hall, China
- Peking University, Beijing, China
- Teatro Libre Jazz Festival, Bogota, Colombia
- Universidad de Nacional, Bogota, Colombia
- Barrinquilla Jazz Festival, Barrinquilla, Colombia
- Canadian Embassy Theatre, Tokyo, Japan
- Canada House, London, England
- Jersey Channel Island Jazz Festival, U.K.
- San Fernando Jazz Festival, Trinidad
- Jamaica Jazz Festival
- Nassau Bahamas Jazz Festival
- Barbados International Jazz Festival
- Holders Season Festival, Barbados
- Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Cultural Festival
- Monterrey, Mexico
- Port of Veracruz, Mexico
- Canada Week
- Montreal Jazz Festival
- Ottawa Jazz Festival
- Winnipeg Jazz Festival
- Toronto Jazz Festival
“The Steve Koven Trio’s version of All The Things You Are is one of the most thoughtful renditions I have ever heard”
-- Ross Porter, Jazz FM
“The Steve Koven Trio represents the healthy future of jazz.”
-– Rolling Stone Magazine (China)
“...before [Nancy Wilson] took the stage there was time and space for a great Canadian talent, pianist Steve Koven. Steve stole the show. This group lit the place up … it was a memorable, remarkable performance”
-- Al Peabody, Barbados Press
“The Steve Koven Trio has an uncanny ability to connect with an audience in a way the others do not.”
-– Jacques Edmond, Ottawa International Jazz Festival
“Steve Koven brings to the stage, a contagious passion for jazz that has makes him one of the finest performers in the biz…”
-- Montreal International Jazz Festival - press release
Steve Koven was born in Toronto, Canada, and began playing piano at age seven. He has studied with various jazz artists including Benny Green, Geoff Keeser, and Bruce Barth.
Steve’s been a professional musician since earning a BFA in Contemporary Improvisation from York University in 1987. In addition to performing world-wide with his trio, he’s played solo throughout North America, Europe, and the Caribbean. When not on tour or in the studio, Steve composes music for film and television and conducts master classes and workshops which focus on the development of improvisational tools and musical self-expression.
Steve is currently on staff at York University where he teaches Contemporary Improvisation and Jazz Piano in the Faculty of Music. As an Educator, Koven has conducted master classes and workshops in China, Japan, Colombia, Barbados and Mexico.
Rob Clutton is a composer and double bassist who was born in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, and has made his home in Toronto for the last twenty years. He earned a Bachelor of Music in Performance at the University of Toronto in 1991 and is currently pursuing a PHD in Music at York University.
Rob is active in the creative and improvised scenes in Toronto with solo project and group projects and as a member of a burgeoning improvising community. His solo project involves composing, performing, and recording for solo bass, including the CD Dubious Pleasures on the Rat-drifting label. Rob has performed numerous solo concerts, including the Guelph Jazz Festival in 2005.
Group projects include the Rob Clutton Band, which has released two CDs of original compositions and performed numerous concerts including the Montreal Jazz Festival. The bassist is a member of Drumheller, N, The Steve Koven Trio, N.O.J.O., Jazzstory, Quorum, The Ryan Driver Quartet, the David Buchbinder Ensemble, and the David Mott Quintet and is a founding member of the Association of Improvising Musicians Toronto, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting local creative improvising musicians, and to facilitating events in Toronto that bring international visiting artists together with local improvisers.
Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Anthony has been involved in music since a very young age. Having played the accordion, and then alto and tenor saxophones but being driven by the ever-present urge to want to play drums from the very beginning, he built his own drum set and played from ear. He attributes a strong influence to having heard classical, cultural, and popular music performed by his sister and brother from the early days of his life.
A graduate of Mohawk College, Anthony studied at the Banff Center and the Lake Placid Center for the Arts and has a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto specializing in Jazz Performance and is presently working on his PHD in music at York University. Anthony is on staff at Mohawk College Jazz Studies Programs.