Music and Performances for Children and Families

above: Stephen performs at the 2020 Be About Love Festival before an audience of stuffed animals and musical sculptures

below: Woke Up, a video featuring Stephen's original song and family animals and a 1 minute clip from Stephen's performance piece, Let's Go Walking:

above: The closing piece of the 2018 Let's Go Walking performance at the Recital Hall at Classic Pianos in Portland, Oregon.

below: Stephen creates rain with guitar, voice and rain percussion and his grandchild Annalee creates an original dance to his music

Stephen doesn't always bring a band when he does his performances for children, but he always brings his collection of homemade instruments, and invites members of the audience to become the band.
above: here he is at the Sandy (Oregon) Library with a wonderful orchestra, and in Dallas, Oregon with a fine group of percussionists right:

And here he is playing cigar box guitar with a stellar makeshift band at the Freight and Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley, California.

Stephen at the Old Church Concert Hall. Who wants to play the drum?

An excellent drummer joins Stephen at the Sandy Library.

Children play Stephen's "Family of Sculptures", musical sculptures Stephen installed as a featured visual artist at the Joshua Tree Music Festival.

Children playing Stephen's "String King" musical sculpture and his homemade cigar box guitar at the Salem (Oregon) Art Fair in July, 2017. Stephen created "The String King" as an Artist in Residence at the Salem Art Association, using copper, bronze, brass, bamboo, wood, guitar strings, and tuning pegs. It was featured at the Salem Art Fair, where Stephen displayed and played it, and found it to be a big hit with children.

Below: Stephen's Baseball, Baseball video, Below: A music video of Stephen's song, Living with the Animals.
with family cameo photo appearances: See how many animals you can see in the video:

Stephen has done interactive children's and family performances at the Long Island Children's Museum (where he did performances and workshops every year for 7 years), the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, California, the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, the Providence (R.I.) Children's Museum, the Kids Discovery Museum in Bainbridge Island, Washington, the Freight and Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley, California, and most every library in the Portland area, including a series of yearly performances at the Lake Oswego Library in Oregon. He did album release concerts celebrating Here Comes the Band at the Old Church and the Blackfish Gallery in Portland in 2006. He was a showcase artist at Kindiefest at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York in 2013. He performed his family concert/performance piece Let's Go Walking playing acoustic guitar, cigar box guitars, a 1 of a kind custom-made miniature guitar, and a homemade 1 String Thing instrument, accompanied by a wonderful cast of musicians, artists, and dancers in Portland at the Recital Hall at Classic Pianos in 2018 and at the Multnomah Arts Center (funded in part by the Regional Arts and Culture Council) in 2020. His interactive performances feature audience members dancing on Mr. Knickerbocker and House of Love, becoming human bridges on Bridges of My Town, becoming a baseball crowd on Baseball, Baseball, playing didgeridoos and bugles on The Elephant Walk, and playing homemade percussion instruments on Rain, Rain, Rain, and Ride the Train.

The front cover of Stephen's 2006 nationally acclaimed children's album, Here Comes the Band, which features 14 songs and a booklet with lyrics, stories about each song, activities, instrument making instructions and paintings and drawings by artist Christopher Shotola-Hardt.

Stephen does his Mr. Knickerbocker dance at the Long Island Children's Museum.

Here is Stephen setting up his rain song orchestra at the Van Meter Elementary School in Los Gatos, California.

And here is Stephen at that school assembly playing cigar box guitar with a great percussion section.

Goodnight, Goodnight: