ALBANY — In honor of over four remarkable decades of service to the orchestra, The Albany Symphony’s (ASO) end-of-season Summer Soirée will be honoring longtime board member and philanthropist, Steve Lobel, on June 27 at Loft 433 at 6:00 p.m. As a part of the evening’s planned activities, Lobel’s entrepreneurship and philanthropy will be acknowledged, as well as his own work as an artist.
“For me, it’s humbling,” said Steve Lobel regarding the recognition. “It’s very odd to find myself talking about this. It feels like yesterday, and now it’s been 43 years.”
Lobel’s role with the Albany Symphony began back in the 1980s, after he opened The Cheese Connection in Stuyvesant Plaza. He caught the attention of Peter Kermani, who was Chairman of the Board of ASO at the time, and was invited to be on the board.
“That was flattering and something to which I could apply my skills on a volunteer basis, which I always like to do when I can,” reflected Lobel.
Enthusiastically jumping into his role, Lobel has seen ASO through over 40 years of its challenges and triumphs. Referring to himself as a ‘team player’, his love of classical music and collaborating with other creatives, including Music Director David Alan Miller, inspired him to keep raising the bar for the orchestra.
“I love classical music. It’s an important part of my life,” he said. “This was an opportunity to work with wonderful people who have served on the board. I just kept sticking with it, and we had some successes and failures. We’ve gotten a lot of good things done.”
“Steve Lobel is one of the Albany Symphony’s longest-serving board members and one of our greatest champions,” said Music Director David Alan Miller. “His endlessly generous contribution of time, wisdom, and resources to the orchestra and to our Capital Region community have made a profound impact on the Capital Region for more than four decades.”
This connection to the Capital Region’s culture and businesses extends into Lobel’s previous work as Vice President at Anchor Agency, Inc., assistant Vice President for Alumni Affairs at the University at Albany, and Co-Founder of Cowan & Lobel.
“The arts were always an outlet for me,” said Lobel. “I think, genetically, I was born an artist, but I didn’t see my way to making a living and raising a family as an artist.”
“But I always had art on my mind,” he continued. “It’s been an important part of my life, my outlet against the stress of owning a business… I always retreated to my studio in my house when things were getting to me. The act of creating something in a craft, I find, is healing and rejuvenating.”
Remaining busy in the arts alongside his business ventures, he developed a passion for woodworking and became a photographer in Nicaragua, documenting a mission to bring reading glasses to the Indigenous Miskito people on the coast of Nicaragua.
Busy as a writer as well, Lobel has published two books, ‘Failing My Way to Success – Life Lessons of an Entrepreneur’ and ‘Recognition Beyond Burned: Portraits of Survival, Rebirth & Hope’, a photography book that chronicles the stories of burn survivors. Proceeds from his book went to the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors.
Now retired, Lobel is “trying to live life as an artist, which I’ve wanted to do.” Lobel can see his art of woodworking as a metaphor for his life and career— an exercise in how dedication and patience can create unexpectedly great results.
When he began with ASO, he had never anticipated the road it would lead him down, but he saw himself as capable of bringing recognition to ASO to “help friends and neighbors understand what a wonderful addition to our cultural community Albany Symphony is,” he said. “We constantly need awareness in the community about what a treasure the Albany Symphony is.”
“I would like to invite people to spend a couple of hours listening to the most spectacular music in the world, and it’s here, and make a decision for yourself: do I want to have more of this?” he added.
The urban garden party soirée is a celebration of not only the year’s accomplishments for ASO but also the four decades of Lobel’s life spent in service to the symphony. The event will feature delectable food, auction items, and a live performance by musicians of the symphony.
“It was and is an important part of my life and my being as a person. I’ve always wanted to do something that left a mark, that moved the bar a little bit,” said Lobel. “We’ve done all that with the Albany Symphony.”
