Dr. Stephen Newby has been there since the beginning. Dr. Newby has led ove 40,000 in the singing the National Anthem over 100 times as the Seattle Sounders primary anthem singer. Sunday’s performance against the Houston Dynamo will be his last, barring future guest appearances.
“It’s not that I’m stepping away for good,” Dr. Newby said in a press release. “I’m going to come back. It’s just going to be on a less frequent basis. I want to spend time with my son and my wife. This will be my son’s last year in high school and he runs track and I need to be a little more present. My son’s calendar is my calendar.”
This will give you chills.
— Seattle Sounders FC (@SoundersFC) June 2, 2017
Enjoy the very first national anthem performance by @composerland from our inaugural MLS match in 2009. pic.twitter.com/7lbpgZ0uv9
Dr. Newby was selected by the Sounders to receive the Golden Scarf for his many contributions. The Golden Scarf is given to those that have made a significant impact on Seattle’s local soccer community.
Even though he has sung the anthem so many times, Dr. Newby still gets nervous before stepping out on the field.
“I don’t take it lightly,” he says. “It’s almost as if — and it’s not militaristic — it’s an important discipline to be able to lead this group in the anthem and I don’t take it lightly. After I pray and after I breathe, it goes away.”
Dr. Newby received his doctorate in Music Composition from the University of Michigan in 1994 and is currently a teacher at Seattle Pacific University where he teaches composition classes, worship, and the theology of music.