She has directed a number of world and West coast premieres of composers such as Ellen Zwilich,[1] George Walker,[2] and Augusta Read Thomas.
It was the era when films were made without scores, and Ferenz Joseph found work in a Hollywood movie house orchestra.
Steiner studied composition with Walter Piston and Randall Thompson, cello with Gregor Piatigorsky and Leonard Rose, and conducting with Elaine Brown and Nadia Boulanger.
At a time when women were not accepted into the ranks of many major symphony orchestras, Steiner's pursuit of a career in conducting seemed impossible, Barbar Jepson wrote in Feminist Art Journal.
[5] Three years later, in 1977, she became the first woman to conduct a professional orchestra from the stage of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Los Angeles Music Center.
[6][7][8] In the same year Steiner conducted at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the 146 conductors of the major symphony, regional and metropolitan orchestras in the United States and Canada were all male.