biography

Steven Carl Aho was born May 7, 1977 and began playing music when he was 5 years old.  His parents, both pianists, first introduced him to the keyboard, but he quickly fell in love with the drums and began practicing obsessively, playing along to records and in a duo with his keyboardist father.   Growing up in Walla Walla, Washington, and later moving to Portland, Oregon while in grade school, he took drum lessons and played with the school band.   Later, after finishing middle school, he became heavily influenced by jazz and classical music and began to study percussion privately with Portland State University's Dr. Joel Bluestone.   He also took lessons with many notable Portland-area drummers including Dave Storrs, Mel Brown, Jeff Cumpston, and Gordon Rencher.   While in high school, he was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including an unprecedented five first-place awards at the Oregon State Solo Music Competition.

In 1999, Steve graduated from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Michael Udow and Gerald Cleaver under a music scholarship.   The U of M provided him with the opportunity to share the stage with such notables as Kenny Werner, Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman, Byron Stripling and Jiggs Whigham.   While in school, he developed an active playing and recording career outside of the university, including a one-month international tour with the Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble of Tokyo, a week-long residency at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, an extended tour in Germany, and continuous work with various Detroit-area jazz musicians.

Steve began graduate school as a teaching assistant at the University of Miami in 1999, where he studied with Ney Rosauro and Steve Rucker.   While living in Miami, he played and recorded with many of the area’s top Latin, pop, and jazz artists and also performed regularly with the Florida Philharmonic, Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet, Palm Beach Opera, Palm Beach Symphony, Palm Beach Pops and New World Symphony.   Steve was appointed to the percussion faculty at the University of Miami in 2001, where he had completed his Master’s Degree in percussion performance the previous year.   Besides teaching percussion, drum set, and jazz improvisation at the University of Miami, he served as an adjunct faculty member at Florida Memorial College for two years.

Steve now lives in Los Angeles, California, where he enjoys a diverse musical career as a touring drummer, studio musician, producer and arranger. His playing has appeared in feature film soundtracks, national TV broadcasts, TV commercials, national sports broadcasts, audio sample libraries, and numerous album projects. Equally comfortable playing drums, vibraphone, percussion, or keyboards, he has worked with such musical luminaries as Tony Bennett, John Williams, David Foster, Andrea Bocelli, Natalie Cole, Reba McEntire, Katherine Jenkins, Charice, BeBe & CeCe Winans, Tom Scott, Joe Chiccarelli, Peter Asher, Chad & Jeremy, Nathaniel Kunkel, Michael Lloyd, Neil Sedaka, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Patti Austin, and Michael Feinstein.

Steve's musical career has taken him to perform in five continents and in 49 U.S. states.   He plays drums and serves as music director for Warner Brothers’ recording artist William Joseph, with whom he has toured with Il Divo, Katherine Jenkins and Josh Groban.   Well versed in many different styles of music, he has performed worldwide with jazz vocalist Monica Mancini and spent a two-year tenure touring with Engelbert Humperdinck.   He also performs regularly with Peter & Gordon, a British-invasion duo comprised of producer Peter Asher and vocalist Gordon Waller. In addition to touring for approximately four months each year with various artists, he has performed for the Academy Awards and the Emmy Awards.