Beaver County-bred composer sets August homecoming show in Rochester
ROCHESTER — Award-winning saxophonist, composer and bandleader Stephen Philip Harvey returns home to Rochester to perform a concert blending original jazz with powerful works of Black American literature.
Harvey and his eight-member band booked the Beaver County concert as part of a mini-tour supporting “The Pen Is Mightier,” a new suite of music inspired by authors like Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Amanda Gorman and more.
“We’re premiering these works and celebrating the vinyl release of our album ‘Elemental (Live),'” Harvey, a Rochester native now dwelling in Maryland, said.
The local matinee show will take place 3 p.m. Aug. 3 at the Sandy Reigel Theater (Borough Theater) in Rochester. Tickets cost $23 at eventbrite.com.
Harvey has been awarded a 2025 Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant, supported by the Doris Duke Foundation, to fund the creation, performance and eventual recording of a new extended work for his jazz octet, to be developed, composed, premiered, and documented through 2027.
The grant marks a powerful milestone in Harvey’s artistic evolution, according to a press release. “Over the past year, his compositional voice has embraced a new focus—a programmatic celebration of Black American culture, drawing inspiration from literature, history and spiritual traditions.”
Stephen Philip Harvey, an award-winning musician and composer, returns home to Beaver County for a show in Rochester.
It’s a shift Harvey sees as both personal and political: “In a time when African American culture faces being displaced, discarded, or divested, I feel called to create a work that preserves, produces, and proliferates our histories, voices, and visions,” he said.
The first fruit of this new direction is “The Pen is Mightier,” with Harvey’s genre-bending music reimagining the words of esteemed Black authors, fusing jazz with funk, gospel, hip-hop and contemporary classical textures.
“The Pen is Mightier” tour performances:
• Aug. 1, Blu Jazz+ (Akron, OH)
• Aug. 3, Sandy Reigel Theatre (Rochester, PA)
• Aug. 12 Blues Alley (Washington, D.C.)
The tour also coincides with the vinyl reissue of “Elemental (Live),” the group’s acclaimed 2024 concert recording.
These performances represent a culminating chapter for the octet. Following this tour, Harvey will pivot his focus toward his 17-piece Stephen Philip Harvey Jazz Orchestra,
carrying his large-ensemble explorations forward into 2026.
“This is a kind of swan song for the octet,” Harvey said. “’The Pen is Mightier’ captures the heart of what we’ve built together—narrative-driven music that I hope begs the listener to dive deeper into the stories or venture towards new ones. I’m proud to send it out into the world with this band.”
