Dr. Steven Errante
Conductor, Wilmington Symphony Orchestra
Steven Errante was born in Dearborn, Michigan in 1953. At an early age he began arranging, composing and conducting for various musical groups in the Detroit area.
By the time he graduated from high school, his music was being performed by
leading orchestras and musicians.
At college, he studied composition and conducting at the University of Michigan and
the Juilliard School, studying with Leslie Bassett, Vincent Persichetti, and Uri Mayer.
During this time, he wrote the score for The Boar's Head Festival, a work heard
annually in Detroit since 1972.
Steven Errante has been Conductor of the Wilmington Symphony and a member of
the UNCW Department of Music faculty since 1986. He is also founding conductor of the Wilmington Symphony Youth Orchestra and accompanist for the Girls’ Choir of Wilmington.
Dr. Errante has degrees from the University of Michigan and the Juilliard School and
has previously taught at the University of Michigan, Northern Michigan University, and
the University of Richmond. He has also been active as a composer and arranger,
his Battleship North Carolina March has been performed throughout the region by the
North Carolina Symphony, and many of the guest artists performing jazz and popular
music with the Wilmington Symphony have been backed up by his arrangements.
Errante’s approach to music centers on his belief that performance and education
enhance each other, so in addition to his teaching at UNCW, he gives presentations in
area schools, organizations, and before each concert in which he illuminates the music
being heard. His comments and musical illustrations can also be heard in the form of
audio blogs on the WSO website and on the Wilmington Symphony Facebook page.
He lives in Wilmington with his wife Sandy, who is the founder and director of the Girls’
Choir of Wilmington and owner of Kindermusik with Sandy Errante. Their daughters Emmy
and Casey are in college.
Steven Errante has a special gift for making music an exciting adventure, whether
it is through his teaching, conducting, or composing. Those who have experienced
his genuine warmth and intense enthusiasm for music may attest to the deeper
understanding and heightened emotional experiences they have discovered under
his musical direction and in his compositions.
Dr. Steven Errante, conductor of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra since 1986
and founding conductor of the Wilmington Symphony Youth Orchestra, teaches upper-
level theory courses, MIDI composition and film scoring. His compositions and
arrangements have been recorded by the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, the North
Carolina Symphony, and the London Symphony. He has written a number of commissioned
works and frequently makes orchestrations and arrangements to accompany WSO
guest artists. He was recently chosen as the first composer commissioned for the
Vanguard Premieres series sponsored by the Vanguard Voices choir.