"One of the highlights of the concert was Steve Stusek's haunting saxophone solo throughout the Old Castle." - Greensboro News and Record

Steve Stusek is Professor Emeritus of Saxophone at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, where he taught from 1999 until his retirement in 2025. He is a founding member of both the Eastwind Reed Quintet—the first reed quintet established in North America—and the Red Clay Saxophone Quartet. With these ensembles, he has toured extensively throughout the United States as well as in China, Germany, and Canada.

Originally from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Stusek earned his Bachelor’s degree in saxophone performance from Indiana University. Before pursuing a Master’s degree in saxophone and chamber music at Arizona State University, he spent a formative year in Paris, studying at both the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and the Conservatoire de la Région de Paris, where he was awarded the Prix d'Or à l'Unanimité in saxophone performance.

After eight years living and performing in the Netherlands, he returned to Indiana University, completing his Doctor of Musical Arts in Saxophone, American Music History, and Jazz in 2001. Over the course of his career, he has held teaching appointments at Ball State University, Middlebury College, and the University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music, and served as an Associate Instructor of Saxophone at both Arizona State and Indiana University.

As a soloist, Stusek has appeared with the Eastern Music Festival and, more recently, with the University of South Carolina Wind Ensemble at the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference. He has also been principal saxophonist with the Eastern Music Festival, the Charlotte Symphony, and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra for more than two decades. In 2000, he won the Dutch Chamber Music Competition as part of 2Track, a saxophone–accordion duo with virtuoso Otine van Erp. The duo subsequently performed widely throughout the Netherlands, appearing frequently on Dutch radio under professional management.

Stusek’s most recent projects include a duo with Swiss saxophonist Laurent Estoppey—an adventurous program blending electronics, video, dance, poetry, and an ever-expanding collection of saxophones—and the COLLAPSS Ensemble (Collective for Happy Sounds), a multidisciplinary group dedicated to new and improvised music, dance, poetry, and video in unconventional spaces.

He has studied with many of the world’s foremost saxophonists and musicians, including Eugene Rousseau, Joseph Wytko, David Baker, Larry Teal, Daniel Deffayet, Jean-Yves Formeau, and Leroy Wolter.

A past president of the North American Saxophone Alliance, Stusek is a performing artist for both Yamaha and Vandoren.