Steve Kramer was born into a family of musicians. As a fourth generation musician he has been educated in music since childhood. He began playing the violin at age three with Grandfather Vladimir Yeshayavitch Novak, who was an eminent Soviet-Jewish violinist and teacher during his tenure in the Kiev Philharmonic, working under Maestro Nathan Rakhlin and teaching at the music school in Kiev. Novak has been Steve’s most profound influence in music pedagogy. Steve is dedicated to putting forward his grandfather’s legacy, which was greatly inspired by the music teaching philosophies of Leopold Auer, Yuri Yankelevich, Abram Yampolsky, Alexander Shtrimer and Emmanuel Fischmann. Steve’s first formal cello teacher was the great Scandinavian cellist Erling Blondal Bengtsson, 1st assistant of the legendary cellist, Piatigorsky at Curtis in Philadelphia. Steve is a former pupil of The Yehudi Menuhin School in London and private pupil of both master cellists and pupils of Emmanuel Fischmann, Boris Pergamentshikov with whom Steve worked with in Germany, Berlin and Alexander Sinelnikov in Jerusalem, Israel.