STEVE NIEVE BIO
Born in 1958 in Hertfordshire, studied composition and piano at the Royal College of Music, the composer and performer Steve Nieve became famous in the late seventies as keyboard player of Elvis Costello and the Attractions. The distinctive sound of the group is widely recognised as the work of Steve’s highly distinctive keyboard styling. The group recorded more than a dozen albums including ThisYear's Model (1978), Armed Forces (1979), Blood and Chocolate (1986) finally All This Useless Beauty (1996). The group was inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.
Steve Nieve is an integral feature of Costello’s career, sharing the collaboration with artists of many different styles : The Brodsky Quartet, Paul McCartney, la mezzo soprano Anne-Sofie von Otter, Chet Baker, Robert Wyatt, Alain Toussaint, Yoko Ono Burt Bacharach and many others. In 2005 when Costello presented his unfinished work « The Secret Songs » Steve was responsible of much of the orchestration.
In addition to all this activity, Nieve has several of his own compositions. Welcome to the Voice an opera in one act, began life at the Bell Atlantic Jazz festival in 2000. A recording featuring Barbara Bonney, Sting, Amanda Roocroft, Elvis Costello released 2007 on the Deutsche Gramophone label and premiered at the Theatre de Chatelet in 2008 with Sting, and Sylvia Schwartz in the lead roles.
Other compositions include: Keyboard Jungle (1983) , Mumu (2000), Raining Somewhere (2003), Windows (2004), Welcome to the Voice (2007), Lazy Point (2110).
Nieve’s work Together (2014) is a modern song cycle, performed in duet with artists like Sting, Elvis Costello, Laurie Anderson, Tall Ulysse, Joe Sumner, Robert Wyatt, Vanessa Paradis, Cali, Ron Sexsmith, Harper Simon, Muriel Teodori, Glenn Tilbrook, Alain Chamfort.
Nieve is currently working on a Flute Concerto for Andrea Griminelli, Correspondence, a Song Cycle for Sylvia Schwartz, with lyrics by Elvis Costello, Muriel Teodori, Robert Burton and others. V.O. avec subtitles, is a play for two actors and two musicians written by Muriel Teodori, with music composed by Nieve.
Nieve was awarded a Grammy in 2020 for his work on Elvis Costello and the Imposters album “Look Now” produced by Sebastian Krys
Nieve lives with Muriel Teodori and between them they have three children, Mercedes Emma, Jackson Ray, and Antoine Ulyss.
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