Steven Fox, founder and CEO of the Entertainment in Music Association, has spent the past 22 years cultivating his professional orchestra, Golden State Pops Orchestra (GSPO), and since 2021, the Los Angeles Film Orchestra.

Over the years, they have put on concerts celebrating film, television and video game music, and worked with major composers like Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, John Debney, Richard Sherman and Robert Townson.

Fox started out with the goal of composing music as he pursued a degree in music theory and composition at Illinois State University and then film scoring at the University of Southern California.

Fox says he initially did not realize he had an ear for conducting, but once he started a student orchestra with a friend in college, he noticed he was a good fit.

“I didn't know at the time, but I was kind of thinking differently about the music than the people sitting around me,” Fox says. “When I wasn't playing, I was listening to what the other sections were doing and the other instruments, and I was kind of thinking how that fit in with what I did. And I was thinking like a composer and a conductor, but I didn't really realize that.”

Once he came out to L.A. to study film scoring, he still had his sights set mainly on writing music. But then he realized he wanted to change trajectory.

“I said to my wife, ‘Do I want to spend 15 or 20 years, working up the ranks and doing whatever work I can find and doing concerts and assisting other conductors and doing concerts for groups because that's what they want to do? Or what if I just start my own orchestra, and I'm going to spend the same amount of time building a company, but it's everything I want to do it because it's my orchestra? And that's the route I decided to go,” Fox says.

Once he launched his own nonprofit, then only the Golden State Pops Orchestra, in 2002, he turned his attention from composing to conducting and running the business as CEO. His goal was to bring orchestral film and media music to the masses in the South Bay.

When he first started the nonprofit, he faced a learning curve when it came to the business side of the orchestra. He had an artistic vision, but he had to find staff, people to play instruments, and funding. He also has to negotiate union contracts and manage hiring decisions.

“Sometimes I had to [release[ my own college friends from the orchestra,” Fox says. “And for legitimate reasons, it's not like I was just mad at him or something. It's not always easy, but it's also very rewarding, as I think it is for any entrepreneur when they form something. And then here it is, 20 years later. t's still here, and it's even expanded to a second orchestra. And we get to do these great concerts and work with these great composers in town. So all the difficulty is worth it in the end.”

Fox also faced challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, which dramatically changed his industry. Before 2017, the orchestra normally did between four and seven concerts each year, along with smaller group performances and educational activities in schools. However, the company encountered a financial issue in 2017, but the orchestra returned in 2019. Then, a few months later, COVID-19 hit. It shut down concerts, so now the company is still in the process of rebuilding. By 2025, Fox hopes the GSPO will be able to do three or four concerts in a year again. He also has a recording session and concert lined up in June for the LA Film Orchestra, with hopefully more work to come.

A lot of behind-the-scenes work goes into putting together a concert, from choosing the venue, and hiring backstage crew to securing the music or guest composers.

“[The goal is that] the audience can't know any of this happened,” Fox says. “They have to just walk in and think they're in another world, they enjoy a great concert, and then they go home two hours later, hopefully happier than when they came. So you're really trying to create the magic through storytelling. I tried to follow the inspiration from Disney in the way they create the experiences in the theme park where you're kind of brought into another world and you're made to feel certain ways. And then when they let you go, you're hopefully happier than when you arrived.”

Fox recalls many highlights for himself, personally and with the company, over the years. He has conducted at the Hollywood Bowl as well as overseas, and he has seen many careers launched through his company orchestra.

He hopes to launch a youth orchestra in the coming year as well, and to start a summer music camp for students starting in 2025 in the Palos Verdes area to bring the love of orchestral music to younger generations.

For Fox, his role is ultimately about bringing joy and connection to his audience. He recalls one concert in which a lady approached him afterward and thanked him for playing the 1812 Overture in concert because it was performed live at the last concert she attended before her husband passed away.

“Obviously you don't play in a concert thinking some person who lost her husband is going to hear this piece of music and it's going to bring back good memories,” Fox says. “You just realize all those unintentional things and it becomes a moment, and you're proud of those kinds of things.”

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