YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – A decrescendo in the music world, Dr. Stephen Gage passed away Sunday evening.

He was a professor of music and director of bands and orchestra at Youngstown State University’s Dana School of Music for 28 years. Gage also was the conductor of the Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra during that time.

He retired from YSU after the spring semester of 2021.

Gage moved to Illinois and became interim director of bands in August 2022 at Indiana State University’s School of Music.

Gage would return to the area once a month to conduct the Warren Packard Band.

His legacy lives on through the many musicians’ lives he touched, always ending conversations with the saying, “love music.”

Gage was 66 years old. He leaves behind a wife three children and a granddaughter.