Steven Urban

Full Name: Stephen Chege Mukirai

Born: 2nd February 1987 in Nairobi, Kenya. Lives in Nairobi, Kenya.

Early Life: Steven Urban started singing in Church at the age of 11. He was part of a trio which also consisted of his two elder sisters. With time, he took a bold step forward and did more solo singing than working with the trio and before long was a solo performer.

Developments: Performance

Voice In high school, he sang tenor in an a capella boy group for two years then later joined a Church youth group choir in which he would sometimes be the lead singer. This was for the next two years. In the year 2006, he was the Praise and Worship leader at a Bible College he attended- ‘The Solid Word Foundation, Petrem School of Ministry’. Steven participated in a musical, ‘It’s cool in the furnace’ staged at Braeburn School, a production by the Kenya Conservatoire of Music (December 2009) as part of the choir. In the same month, he had his very first wedding performance, & this was at the Jockey Club of Kenya.

He performed at The Voice Age concert staged at Brookhouse International School in the month of July 2010, and this saw him share the stage with music great Eric Wainaina and Berklee College of Music Professors. Later that year, he played a lead role in a musical ‘The Legend of a Rain Queen’. On 5th October the same year, he landed the opportunity to sing at a closed door private wedding between Hollywood movie director ‘Carlo Rota’ and a former model ‘Dinesh Rota’ at the renowned St Paul’s Anglican Church Kiambu.

In the year 2011, Steven Urban was awarded full scholarship to attend The Brookhouse Academy of Performing Arts where he majored in Business & Technology in Music. He performed at the Academy’s open day (21st January) and second term’s end of term concert among many other performances through the course. By the end of the course, he was involved in the creative process and final release of three music albums. On 5th March, he featured in a concert by The Villagers Band as a guest artist in which he got to perform one of their songs with them, and a week later, performed in a series of concerts at The Voyager Hotel, Nyali courtesy of Brookhouse School. Later that month, he served as a back-up singer for the Oyier Brothers at a corporate function held at Hotel Intercontinental, Nairobi.

On 28th May 2011, he sang at a private dinner party at Nairobi’s Garden Estate, performing an array of songs packaged in form of a short musical. Steven launched out as a performing artist going by the stage name 'Steven Urban' in August 2011, forming a band that has transformed over time to this date. Currently, the band consists of a rhythm section, two background vocalists & himself as the lead singer/ band leader. Among the places they’ve performed are as follows; · The Nairobi Kinanda Festival · The Nairobi Fashion Market · Mathewmatix House of Jazz · Jether Music School (end of year graduation 2011) · Nairobi, Langata Maximum Womens' Prison · The 'Nyumba Ya Wazee' charity concert · Twendelele at 'The Bowling Green' · Eve of Poetry at St Andrews Church (Nairobi) Between September-November 2011, he was involved in a project titled 'Kwetu- I am Kenyan', created to help bring the country together by appreciating our identity. This involved the recording & launching of a music album. He performed on six tracks featured on the album (voice) & the project led to a performance at 'The Annual Kenya Music Week'. One of the songs he featured on titled ‘Rudisha’ in honour of 800 meters world champion David Rudisha, received massive radio air play during the 2012 Olympics season

Steven organized a Christmas concert at The Nairobi Langata Women’s Maximum Prison on December 23rd the same year and performed alongside 15 other musicians. He wrote a song that turned out to be the 'hit' song for The Kenya Conservatoire of Music upcoming end of year musical and performed it at the school’s end of first term concert (2012) accompanied by renown Singer/ Pianist & Tutor Mrs. Nancy Day, Cantus in Coro Choir and The Conservatoire Orchestra.

April 2012- He performed at 'The Round Square International Schools' Conference’ at Brookhouse School, before an audience that included, King Constantine of Greece,Vice- President of Kenya Hon. Kalonzo Musyoka & former Vice-President Hon. Moody Awori. From the month of April 2012, Steven Urban started featuring on World musician Denise Gordon’s performance sets as a guest artist, working with her band. So far, they’ve performed in the following places; · Choices Bar & Restaurant · Brews Bistro Bar & Restaurant · Galileo Lounge · The Story Moja- Hay Festival.

On 22nd July 2012, he got another opportunity to perform with the Conservatoire Orchestra at the schools end of term concert, doing a cover of the song ‘Viva la Vida’ by British Rock Band, Coldplay. He also performed a cover of the song ‘change the world’ by Baby Face & Eric Clapton backed by a band that consisted of Conservatoire students. Out of a passion to empower the woman of today's world, Steven Urban recently performed at a charity concert he organized on October 14th titled Dadaab’s Gabhar, a fundraiser for Refugee Women in Dadaab. This was a six hour show featuring performances by 20 Bands. He performed a duet cover of Alicia Keys’ ‘I will make the darkness light’ and also a duet of his own composition ‘You are a giant’ backed by an orchestra and four piece vocal ensemble.

· Guitar

Steven Urban has been a guitar student at The Kenya Conservatoire of Music for about two and a half years and so far, has played in four concerts- End of term concert (August 2010), Acoustic Alchemy (March 2011), End of term concert (April 2011) and Acoustic Alchemy (October 2012). He’s also played guitar for the studio recording of a song featured on a class based album at The Academy of Performing Arts. Song writing & Composition Steven has written/composed about nine songs for class based projects at the Acadamey and he is one of the songwriters/ composers for an upcoming musical by The Kenya Conservatoire of Music titled, ‘Sugar Plum’. He was one of the songwriters of two songs performed at 'The Roundsquare International Conference' held at Brookhouse School.

He is currently co-writing a song with renowned world/ Afro-Pop Musician, Denise Gordon. Arrangement Steven arranges music for his band and shared ideas on songs during the recording of three album projects he was a part of at the Academy of Performing Arts. He arranged a medley for the ‘Brookhouse Christmas Carol Concert 2011', performed by the Choir, Chamber Choir, Orchestra, Band & himself as a soloist. He has recently been contracted to arrange and produce a ballad version of a four track Hip- Hop EP.

Production/ Sequencing

For class based projects at the Academy, he assisted in writing and creating a 60 second jingle and also created an African/ Caribbean version of a folk song titled ‘House of the Rising Sun’ by The Animals. Steven Urban served as executive/ assistant producer for a song featured in one of the album projects at the Academy. He sequenced the string section for a song he composed/ wrote for one of the school’s album projects. In May 2012, he composed/ sequenced a Quartet titled 'Pursuit' played by the Brookhouse School Orchestra.

Humanitarian Activity

Performances at; The Nairobi Langata Womens' Prison (23rd Dec2011) The ‘Nyumba la Wazee’ Home (7th Jan 2012) Jazz & Books (April 2012- ) Dadaab’s Gabhar- the Dadaab Refugee Women Project (14th Oct 2012) Awards: Adjudicators Award- Aga Khan high School Talent Show 2005 Brookhouse School Business & Technology in Music student of the year 2012.

Future Aspirations

Steven Urban would like to give his audiences an experience than only a performance. This will be achieved by incorporating choreography, skits, stage & lighting designs, good music arrangements & finally costumes to his sets. He hopes to land a recording deal soon. Steven would like to perform all over the world, gracing stages of concerts like; The Joy of Jazz Festival, Cape Town Jazz Festival & award ceremonies like The Grammys & BET. He would also like to continue working on projects that empower women. Together with all this, he would like to publish his music, write music for TV & film, arrange & orchestrate and also get into production. [ [[

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