Staff file photo / Andy Gray More than 100 musicians will perform Sunday at Stambaugh Auditorium to honor the legacy of Stephen L. Gage, shown here conducting his final concert at Youngstown State University in 2021.

Rob Seebacher didn’t hesitate when asked to be one of the conductors for Sunday’s #LoveMusic: Stephen L. Gage Legacy Concert at Stambaugh Auditorium.

“Steve Gage is the reason, one, that I have a job, and two, that I love my profession so much,” Seebacher said. “I had a really great band program. I went to Seneca Valley High School (in Harmony, Pa.), and my elementary band director, my high school director were amazing people. These folks inspired me to have the drive and love of music.

“But then I met this guy named Steve Gage when I auditioned for the Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra, and it was one of the first experiences that I had playing in an orchestra. I’m a French hornist, and I fell in love with that. Then Steve recruited me to YSU for my undergrad, where he taught me conducting at the undergraduate level, which was an exception to the rule, and inspired for all four years at Youngstown, a love of conducting, a love of music and a love of communicating with people through music.”

Many of the more than 100 musicians who will participate in Sunday’s concert can tell similar stories. They studied with him at Dana School of Music or played for him in the Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra or the YSU Wind Ensemble. Many followed his lead and became educators and conductors themselves.

Gage died in 2023 at age 66 following complications after surgery. He spent 28 years as the director of bands and orchestra at Youngstown State University, retiring in 2021. He also served as the conductor of the W.D. Packard Concert Band for 12 years and led the Stambaugh Youth Concert Band.

His family organized the first #LoveMusic: Stephen L. Gage Legacy Concert in 2023, and a second concert took place last year.

Gage’s daughter, Claudia Gage, said hearing stories from her dad’s former students has been as important as the music they’ve made at those past concerts.

“My favorite part of this has been meeting people who knew my dad at all points in his career and hearing stories and getting to share memories,” she said. “We have a lot of people involved in this who were my dad’s students in the ’90s, and they say things to me like, ‘Oh, I remember when you were a little girl,’ or ‘I remember when your brother was born,’ and they’ll tell stories about my dad from that era, and sometimes it’s things that I was too young to remember at the time. So that’s just really meaningful.”

Despite being the third event, the program won’t be a repeat of past concerts. There will be a flute choir directed by Kathryn Umble that will play in the lobby before the main concert. This will be the first year it has featured an orchestra of Gage’s former students, which will be conducted by Seebacher.

“My dad was very involved with what was at the time called the Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra,” Gage said. “There’s a strong group of alumni from that organization. I’m actually an alumni of YSYO as well. Being able to include an orchestra was something that we were able to make happen this year, and that was a huge thing for us.”

Other conductors for the program will be Dennis Hawkins and Timothy Shade, who also studied with Gage.

“We’ve expanded it from just focusing on pieces that my dad had done to really opening it up to the conductors and saying, ‘What are pieces that you are passionate about, and things that you think are a good fit?,” Gage said. “It turned into a mix of things that my dad did have a close connection to — ‘Blue Shades’ by Frank Ticheli is one of the wind ensemble pieces, and that’s one that I know my dad loved — but also including some different or newer work, and that’s been really exciting.

“That’s a piece of the concert and the organization that we’re hoping to grow, because it is about legacy. It’s not just about memorializing. It’s continuing this passion for music and this love of music and bringing music to the community.”

For the orchestra portion Seebacher selected works that had sentimental meaning to him. Georges Bizet’s “L’Arlesienne Suite No. 1” was the first piece Seebacher ever played with Gage conducting him as a member of the youth orchestra. Other selections he programmed, such as Gabriel Faure’s “Pavane” and Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville (Overture),” were pieces Seebacher worked on as a YSYO musician or as Gage’s assistant when Seebacher was an undergrad.

The concert will close with all of the musicians performing Carmen Dragon’s arrangement of “America the Beautiful.”

“It’s the Gage family that makes this happen,” Seebacher said. “They believe in this. They have dedicated enormous amounts of time and money to this cause, and the result is a concert that is not only musically exceptional, but also emotionally exceptional. It will not be possible to leave the concert hall on Sunday afternoon and not feel better about the world we live in.”

If you go …

WHAT: #LoveMusic: Stephen L. Gage Legacy Concert

WHEN: 3 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Stambaugh Auditorium, 1000 Fifth Ave., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $20 with students admitted free with ID. Tickets are available at the DeYor Performing Arts Center box office, online at experienceyourarts.org and by calling 330-259-9651.