Steven Loy, conductor, composer
Based in Slovenia, conductor Steven Loy is known as an enthusiastic advocate for new music. He is the founder and artistic director of the Ljubljana-based ensemble Neofonía, with whom he has given first performances in Slovenia of many important works from the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He was the artistic director of the Predihano new music series produced by Cankarjev dom in 2010 and served from 2011-2018 as artistic advisor. As a conductor he works regularly with the Slovenian Philharmonic and the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra in both contemporary and more traditional orchestral repertoire, as well as with smaller groups such as the Slovenian Philharmonic String Orchestra, the Slovenian Percussion Project SToP, ensemble MD7 (with whom he has given over 70 world premieres) and Slowind. He has been a guest conductor with one of the world’s leading new music ensembles Klangforum Wien, as well as Ensemble Experimental of the SWR Experimental Studio Freiburg and the New Music Orchestra in Katowice, and has also guest conducted the Mihail Jora Philharmonic (Bacau), Savaria Symphony (Szombathely), Miskolc Symphony Orchestra and the Brașov Philharmonic. Active also as a composer, his music has been performed by the Slovenian Philharmonic.
A deeply committed educator, he is an assistant professor of conducting at the Ljubljana Academy of Music where he is co-coordinator of the New Music Studio, leading the new music ensemble and teaching contemporary music performance practice, in addition to teaching a course on advanced rhythm techniques and coaching chamber music. He holds degrees in conducting (École Normale du Musique de Paris, Georgia State University) and composition (University of the Arts Philadelphia, Academy of Music Ljubljana) and has actively participated in masterclasses with many well-known conductors including Péter Eötvös, Helmuth Rilling, Jorma Panula, Lothar Zagrosek (Accademia Chigiana Siena), Jean-Marc Burfin, Zoltán Peskó and Yuri Simonov.
