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YOUNGSTOWN -- Aeva Richard fondly recalled when she was under Stephen Gage's musical tutelage and he asked her and the other students to conduct a brief experiment that was, in actuality, a life lesson.
"I was under his baton for about three years," the 2021 Boardman High School graduate and Youngstown State University junior said. "He really taught me how to tell a story with music rather than just playing notes on a page."
Richard, a YSU flute performance major who also plays the piccolo, remembered the day Gage, a longtime beloved music professor, asked her and the other student musicians to take 10 seconds each to look to those on their right and left, and in the same two 10-second increments, think of something about which to complain, then rejoice. It was a moment to reflect on the fact that everyone has interpretive choices, but that, like music, life will continuously move forward, she explained.
"He truly taught us how not only to love music, but to love life," Richard continued.
She and hundreds of others of all ages had a variety of emotions as the music moved forward during Sunday afternoon's Stephen L. Gage Memorial Concert at Stambaugh Auditorium.
The two-hour performance was in honor of the late Gage, who spent 28 years of his 44-year musical career as professor of music and director of bands and orchestra at YSU's Dana School of Music before he died Feb. 5 in Indianapolis. He was 66.
Many of the musicians who took the stage Sunday and were part of the wind ensemble, jazz band or brass quintet were Dana alumni members and had been heavily influenced by Gage's leadership, mentoring and musicianship. Family members and friends organized the collage of musicians and the repertoire for the performance, which also featured a variety of conductors, Matt Pagac, Stambaugh's chief executive officer, noted.
"I've known Steve since I was in middle school," Pagac recalled, adding that Gage also was a powerful mentor to him.
The program, which featured music that Gage treasured, crossed several genres -- everything from Gustav Holst's "First Suite in E-flat" to Leonard Bernstein's "Four Dances from West Side Story" to "Still the One," a well-known hit from the 1970s pop group Orleans. Also in the mix were three Gage compositions, "Song for Claudia," "Blues for Shorty" and "Grooves for Brass," which Gage wrote for his daughter, Claudia Gage, and sons, Matthew and Brendan, respectively.
"Song for Claudia" was a whimsical and pensive piece that brought an added hush to the auditorium. The tune was a duet with YSU music professor Kathryn Umble playing flute and Diane Yazvac, a former part-time YSU music professor, providing the piano accompaniment.
The program's first half ended with "Blues for Shorty," which tendered a big band flavor and featured a series of 32-bar horn solos.
"For me, (the concert) is just a wonderful opportunity to celebrate my dad's life and legacy with so many people he's touched throughout his career," Claudia Gage of Bloomington, Ind., said. "I'm overwhelmed, but in a good way, knowing there's so many people he's touched."
Claudia Gage, who works for Indiana University's student leadership and student programs, added that she took flute lessons in high school from Umble, who also was among her father's colleagues.
Before beginning his long tenure at YSU, Gage, who lived in Chrisman, Ill., earned a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., as well as a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Most recently, he served as interim director of bands at the Indiana State University School of Music. Also while in the Mahoning Valley, Gage conducted the Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra and the W.D. Packard Concert Band in Warren.
In addition, Gage was inducted into the American Bandmasters Association in 1999 and was part of the National Bandmasters Association.
Regardless of his long list of credentials, degrees and credits, Richard wasted no time getting to what she feels lies at the heart of how the beloved figure will be remembered.
"He left such a huge influence on the music community," she said. "His legacy is going to live on forever."
As an added tribute to Gage, Sunday's performance ended with those in the audience who had brought musical instruments being asked to join the estimated 105 musicians onstage by standing in place and playing the famous John Philip Sousa song, "The Stars and Stripes Forever."