Steve Kujala

Steve Kujala (born July 16, 1955) is an American jazz and studio musician and multi-instrumentalist (flute, tenor + soprano saxophone, keyboards, percussions, clarinet, and guitar). He is also a songwriter.

After working with several jazz greats like John Serry, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock, he transitioned to working as a studio musician for Hollywood productions and worked on soundtracks for hundreds of television series and movies.

Steve Kujala was born Stephen Richard Kujala in Chicago, Illinois, on July 16, 1955, to Alice and Walfrid Kujala. He comes from a classical music family—his mother was a violinist who taught Suzuki violin teacher in the Winnetka, Illinois public school district and his father was the principal piccolo of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Professor of Flute at Northwestern University. His grandfather was a bassoonist.

Kujala learned music from his parents. He first studied piano when he was five, flute by the age of ten, and then guitar in the following year. Growing up, he was fascinated by the British Invasion movement (The Beatles); progressive art-rock bands (Jethro Tull); and the jazz/rock fusion movement like Chick Corea.

He attended New Trier West High School in Winnetka, Illinois. In 1972, when he was 17, his school's jazz group was chosen as one of ten bands to compete at the first-ever high school jazz competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. Their jazz ensemble won first place and was voted the most exciting band of the entire competition. Kujala won the Best Flute award, which was presented to him by famed pianist Les McCann. While they were in Europe, the group also performed outside the festival in Switzerland, Germany, Amsterdam, and France.

In 1973, Kujala enrolled at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York (his father's alma mater). At Eastman, he studied flute with his father's former teacher and mentor Joseph Mariano. After Mariano's retirement, he took formal flute lessons from his father who had accepted a visiting professor position at Eastman. In his junior year, he also studied under Irish flute virtuoso James Galway.

While at Eastman, Kujala co-founded a jazz-rock fusion group called Auracle (initially named Inner Vision) with four of his cohorts—pianist John Serry, trumpeter Rick Braun, bassist Bill Staebell, and drummer Ron Wagner. In 1975, Auracle competed at the Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and won many awards from judges Sonny Rollins and Jack DeJohnette. Kujala was awarded the "best jazz flutist" by famed flutist and saxophonist Hubert Laws. Shortly after, the group won the CBS record's "Battle of the Bands" and went to New York City to record a demo album of their original compositions at CBS Studios.

After completing his education at Eastman, Kujala, with Auracle, relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a music career. They entered a contract with Chrysalis Records and recorded a jazz/funk/soul album titled Glider in 1978. The album was produced by Miles Davis' producer Teo Macero and composer James Di Pasquale. The following year, Auracle released their second album City Slickers. It was followed by a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, where he impressed the piano legend Chick Corea. Corea invited Kujala to join Corea's touring group, replacing Joe Farrell, and took Kujala under his wing and mentored him.

Kujala went on four world tours with Corea and made four records. In 1983, they recorded Again And Again (The Joburg Sessions) in Germany, accompanied by Tom Brechtlein on drums and Spanish bassist Carles Benavent. Their next album was Ivanhoe (Inner City Records), featuring Herbie Hancock on piano. Their 1985 album Voyage (ECM) was nominated for a Grammy. It was recorded in Munich, Germany, by Manfred Eicher, the founder of ECM Records.

During those years, Kujala developed the technique for the Böhm flute (Theobald Boehm) to let tones merge. He incorporated the style in Corea and Kujala's recording of Fresh Flute (Columbia Records, 1986) with Carlos Vega (drums); Earle Dumler (oboe); Flim Johnson (electric bass); John Chiodini (guitar); Kim Robertson (harp); Michael Fisher, Tim Boatman (percussion). Kujala and Corea also recorded with Gary Burton, Bobby McFerrin (Play, 1992), and Bela Fleck.

As an independent musician, he released Fretless Flute Song (CBS, 1986) featuring his slide-flute technique. He then focused on studio work in Los Angeles, first with television sessions and then on movies. He also played solo for a few musicals including the famous The Lion King (based on a book by Roger Allers and Irene Mecchi, with music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice.)

One of his first works was playing solo flute on George A. Romero's sci-fi drama Monkey Shines, starring Jason Beghe, John Pankow, and Kate McNeil. In 1993, he contributed to the soundtrack of Steven Spielberg's award-winning hit Schindler's List starring Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, and Caroline Goodall. In 2021, he worked with celebrated composer Michael Giacchino on Jon Watts's Oscar-winning superhero fantasy film Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Most recently, in 2024, Kujala played flute with Andrea Datzman's band on the soundtrack of Kelsey Mann's teen comedy Inside Out 2.