Steve Kortyka
Musician / Composer / Educator
Based out of Cleveland Ohio Steve Kortyka is an accomplished mulit-instrumentalist, composer, educator and full time performer. He is a main member of the Brian Newman Quintet/Quartet, one of NYC's modern working bands and has toured the world working with this group and its dynamic members. Since graduating from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 2004, he has been a full time performer and musical director in a wide variety of different settings including small group, big band and show band acts.
The Grammy Award Winning Albums 'Cheek to Cheek' (2014), 'Tony Bennett Celebrates 90' (2016) and 'Love For Sale' (2021) feature Steve's arranging work on 'Firefly', 'I Can't Give You Anything But Love', 'Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered', 'La Vie En Rose', and 'You're the Top'. His playing is also featured on several improvised solos throughout these albums including the classic takes on 'Lady Is a Tramp' (Tony Celebrates 90), 'Let's Face the Music and Dance' (Cheek to Cheek), 'Love For Sale' and 'It's De-Lovely' (Love For Sale).
Under his own name, Steve has released several albums as a band leader and continues to perform with is own quartet throughout the northeast including in the NYC area and beyond. Although primarily a saxophonist, he is versatile on many different instruments and uses this knowledge to bring something truly unique to every collaboration.
In addition to being a full time performer, Steve is also an avid teacher of improvisation and composition. As a creator of the SK Improvisation Studio, he has created an opportunity to reach students all over the world and share his musical expertise first hand through livestreams, masterclasses and pre-recorded instruction. In addition to the teaching studio platforms, Steve has reached hundreds of thousands of musicians by providing educational content on YouTube, Downloadable PDFs, as well as Courses and Online Masterclasses.
Steve exclusively plays Boston Sax Shop mouthpieces, JL Woodwinds and Shore Sax horns and is endorsed by Applied Microphone Technologies, Neural DSP and Keyleaves.