Steve Kirby, jazz bassist, arrived in Winnipeg from New York in 2003, having already established a prominent career performing, recording, and touring with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Elvin Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Cyrus Chestnut, Abbey Lincoln, Steve Turre, James Carter, Slide Hampton, Joe Lovano, Lester Bowie, John Hicks, and many others. Now a fixture in Winnipeg’s cultural scene, Kirby continues to perform, compose, and record; his newest album, Stepchild (2012), features the Northern Prairie Jazz Collective. He is the director of jazz studies at the University of Manitoba, director of the U of M Jazz Camp, artistic director of the Izzy Asper Jazz Performances, and editor of Dig! Magazine, Winnipeg’s bimonthly jazz publication. Kirby’s gifts as a performer, clinician, and speaker have inspired audiences in concert halls, clubs, inner-city street festivals, community centres, high school gyms, and university classrooms in North America and beyond. He shares not only his passion for jazz, but the tenets of tolerance, self expression, and community building that are at its core.