Editor
Steve Smith
Steve Smith has been thinking and talking about music nearly as long as he’s been thinking and talking, period, and writing about it almost as long. Following stints as a classical-music DJ, a bar-band drummer, an editor at Jazziz and a columnist at Billboard, Steve landed at Time Out New York in 2001 as the Classical Music & Opera Editor. Almost immediately, he began to show off his unnatural discernment of Norwegian black metal and Swedish death metal—not to mention Latin American alternative rockers and Japanese onkyo improvisers. As the Music Editor, Steve combines all of those interests with an insatiable appetite for hip-hop mixtapes and a deep, genuine enthusiasm for Miley Cyrus. Ask me about: Arias and barcarolles, 12-bar blues and sonata form, Richard Wagner and Dick Wagner, huapangos and blastbeats, Charles Wuorinen and Charles Hamilton. (And Miley Cyrus.)
Associate Editor
Hank Shteamer
A Kansas City native, Hank Shteamer arrived in NYC for college in 1998 and never left. Around the age of 16, he began writing about music and playing the drums, and he still spends the majority of his waking hours engaged in one or the other. A resident of Brooklyn, Shteamer enjoys reading, playing squash, blogging, obsessing over everything from death metal to classic jazz, and dining out whenever humanly possible. In addition to his work at Time Out New York—where he serves as Associate Music Editor—he regularly contributes to the music journals Wire and Signal to Noise. Ask me about: All things music, my favorite sportswriters. (And William Faulkner.)
Music Writers
Sophie Harris
Born and raised in London, Sophie Harris fell in love with New York when she came here on vacation as a kid and tried pink lemonade for the first time. Having written about music for The Times of London, MOJO and Time Out London, she gleefully decided to jump ship and move to NYC this spring. Now living in Brooklyn, Sophie can be found playing bluegrass music with her buddies, trawling junk shops and looking the wrong way at traffic lights—and drinking pink lemonade, of course. Ask me about: Golden country music, John Steinbeck, 1950s magazines, David Lynch, vintage shoes.
Jay Ruttenberg
Jay Ruttenberg has been a staff music writer at Time Out New York since 2000. He is also editor of the Lowbrow Reader, a small comedy journal. Before working at Time Out, he was music editor of Puncture, and has written for The New York Times, Spin, Vibe and Details. Ask me about: Bob Dylan, Papas Fritas, Royal Trux, the Beatles.
Colin St. John
Colin St. John grew up in Denver, Colorado; when he’s not representing the Mile High City or one of its various sports teams, you’ll find him catching a show, beer in hand. He went to school in Boston, and isn’t quite sure how he found himself in New York, writing about music at a now-defunct website. He joined the TONY staff at the end of 2007, and eats soup at work almost every day. Ask me about: jam bands, indie rock and Seinfeld references. (What do the three have in common? Not much.)
Cabaret Writer
Adam Feldman
Adam likes to go to the theater, which is good, because he does it all the time. When he’s not at the theater, he’s usually taking in a cabaret show at some swanky nightclub. This leaves him little time for a personal life. It does, however, make him a first-rate source of informed and reliable opinions on a wide variety of live entertainment, which, he tells himself in bed at night, more than makes up for the lack of a personal life. Doesn’t it? A staff writer since 2003, Adam also serves as the (controversial!) president of the venerable New York Drama Critics’ Circle (est. 1936), the youngest person ever elected to that position. He’s a graduate of Harvard University, where he was a member of the legendary Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Ask me about: musical theater, classical theater, all other kinds of theater, critics, nightclub music, cabaret, American popular song, the Tony Awards, gay and lesbian issues, Jewish issues, crossword puzzles, and pretty much anything else that tickles you.
