Steve Rashid

Steve Rashid is an Emmy winning composer, a performer, producer and recording engineer. He holds a B.A. in Music and Philosophy from Ripon College and a Masters Degree in Music Composition from Northwestern University. He has composed and performed in many musical contexts and in many styles throughout his career. His company, Woodside Avenue Music Productions (founded in 1991), is both a recording studio and a record label, and through it he has released four solo CDs ("i will hold you tiny hand," "Fidgety Feet," "As In A Mirror" and "Song of Songs”) as instrumentalist and singer. In addition, he has produced/engineered hundreds of recordings for many other artists and labels, spanning jazz, folk, classical, bluegrass, gospel, country and pop music.

His newest project, cafeunderscore.com, is a whimsical online gallery which displays a collection of Rashid’s musical portraits of ordinary people observed in coffee shops.  He conceived it as artist sketches, but with music.

Rashid received a 2009 Emmy Award for his score of the historical documentary, “Lost & Found: Legacy of USS Lagarto,” which aired on Chicago Public Television.  Rashid has scored two other Emmy Award-winning documentaries, “Angels Too Soon,” and “Leopold and Loeb: Love and Murder in Chicago,” both for Chicago Public Television.  He has also scored shows for the A&E, Bio, History Channel, Weather Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery and OLN television networks.

Rashid regularly composes music for dance, largely in collaboration with his wife, choreographer Béa Rashid.  His work in this area includes a full length ballet based on C.S. Lewis’ "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe."

In 2004 Rashid co-wrote (with noted Chicago playwright/actor Tom Mula) an election-themed musical about the Bush administration called, "W!", which was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for “Best New Work.” Rashid is a two-time Jeff Award recipient for the musicals "Sylvia’s Real Good Advice" (composer/co-lyricist) and "The Good Times Are Killing Me" (music director).

Rashid has extensive experience creating recordings for younger audiences, and his work in the field of family entertainment has received over 25 national awards, including the Parents’ Choice Gold Award, the ALA Notable Children’s Recording, and the National Parenting Publications Gold Award. His stage and recorded work have been featured in national publications including Billboard, Variety and The New York Times, and on broadcasts ranging from Chicago radio and television to The Today Show and the BBC. His jazz group, “Steve Rashid and the Porkpies,” was called “one of Chicago’s most entertaining groups” by the Chicago Tribune, and WGN Radio called Steve "a Chicago treasure."

He was a 2004 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from Ripon College.