Steven Alvarez comes to Anchorage from the San Francisco Bay Area where he was active as both a performer and educator. Raised in a multi-ethnic military family, Steven had the opportunity to grow up in and around many diverse cultures including Hispanic, Native American, Hawaiian, Japanese, and all three coasts of the continental U.S. He graduated from San Jose State University with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Music (Voice and Percussion) and History and a minor in Philosophy.
An artist with hands in many mediums, he works professionally as a percussionist, vocalist, stage actor, film and stage producer and music educator. His work as a film producer includes: Asveq, The Walrus Hunt; Living From the Land and Sea; Beyond Boundaries, An Artist Exchange; Native Stories of the Heavens; The Box of Wisdom Totem Pole and In This World, a Native American Music Award (NAMA) winning music video for the Native band Medicine Dream. He also served as the Project Director for Drums of the North, a traditional Yup’ik music CD. He is currently producing a film on the Alaskan Native and Inuit games and regularly performs an innovative theater piece that couples live storytelling and singing with film which recently debuted at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington D.C. www.thecharlesagency.com
Steven began working professionally as a musician at the age of 16 where he was the lead vocalist for the San Francisco Bay Area band Tykus and worked his way through college performing as both a singer and percussionist.. As a percussionist, he worked with the Monterey Symphony and the Santa Cruz Symphony Orchestras for seven years and freelanced as a percussionist for various performing groups both in the San Francisco and Anchorage areas. Steven was a guest artist for the Anchorage Festival of Music (AFM) in 1997 and then served as AFM’s Executive Director for three seasons. As a guest artist for the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1983, he performed with jazz artist Bobby Hutcherson. Steven has shared the stage with Lloyd Bridges, Doc Sevrinson, Jethro Tull and others and has worked with numerous bands, combos and pit orchestras. He has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe, has recorded local and national radio and television commercials jingles as both a vocalist and percussionist which includes the 15” Hershey’s Kisses Christmas spot that has run annually for 16 years.
Steven’s fifteen years of teaching experience includes both vocal and instrumental music from elementary through high school. He also served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Alaska, Anchorage for two years. As an administrator, Steven has directed private music and dance schools, after school programs and art organizations and has accrued thirteen years of arts and education management experience.
Steven has music directed over 30 theater productions and is one of the founding directors of Theater Artists United (TAU), an Anchorage based theater company that has produced extremely successful runs of Cabaret, Rocky Horror, Hair and Little Shop of Horrors.
Steven has performed on stage in several musical and theater productions, having played the roles of Jinx/Forever Plaid, Judas Iscariot/ Jesus Christ Superstar, Sky Masterson/ Guys & Dolls and recently music directed and performed the role of Jesus for Kokopelli Theatre’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar. He has also performed at the Heard Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, for the Institute of American Indian Art, NMAI and with the Air Force Band of the Pacific.
He currently performs regularly as a percussionist with the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, the Anchorage Opera and Anchorage Concert Chorus. He also works with Native poet and musician Joy Harjo, Canyon Records recording artists Medicine Dream and R. Carlos Nakai and Artic Voice recording artists Pamyua. Steven has performed as a solo artists at the Kennedy Center and at the NMAI’s Classical Native Series in Washington D.C.
Steven serves as the Director of Cultural Education & Strategic Initiatives for the Alaska Native Heritage Center where he is responsible for developing educational and public programming, serving as the primary liaison to the Center’s national partners, coordinating strategic initiatives and developing a new media department.