He started studying music as selftaught, then with Benoît Delbecq, Serge Adam and Eric Barret.
He also followed workshops with George Russel, Dave Liebman, Richie Beirach, Steve Coleman.
In 1993/1994, he studied at Berklee College of Music (Boston) with Bill Pierce, David Locke, Steve Prosser, ...

From 1996 to 1999, he played in Geoffroy De Masure's TRIBU ...
During this period, he participates also in numerous "Mercoledi and Co" concerts, at the Instants Chavirés, during which are played numbers of his compositions ....
From 2000 to 2004, he's a member of the Hask collective with Steve Argüelles, Benoît Delbecq, Hubert Dupont and Guillaume Orti.

In 2008 , the saxophone quartet Xasax presented Game, a suite composed by Stéphane Payen

Past Projects

MORGAN THE PIRATE
Around the music of Lee Morgan
Stéphane Payen (as, arr) Alain Vankenhove (tr) Hugues Mayot (ts) Mathias Malher (tb) Gilles Coronado (g) Christophe Lavergne (dr)

JAZZOPHONE
Alban Darche (as, ts, composition) Patrick Charnois (bs) Sylvain Rifflet (ts, cl) Stéphane Payen (as)

TRIBU
Geoffroy De Masure (tb, composition) Stéphane Payen (as) Jean-Luc Lehr (b) Chander Sardjoe (dr)

TRIKYKLO
Yorgos Dimitriadis (dr, composition) Stéphane Payen (as, composition) Gueorgui Kornazov (tb) puis Philippe Lemoine (as, composition)

PUSH THE TRIANGLE
Franck Vigroux (g, composition) Michel Blanc (dr, composition) Stéphane Payen (as) + guest : Ellery Eskelin (ts)

Hubert DUPONT - LE DECOR
Hubert Dupont (b, composition) Nicolas Genest (tr) Stéphane Payen (as) David Venitucci (accordéon) Brice Wassy or Franck Vaillant (dr)

VEGETAL BEAUTY & MAD SPIRIT
Antoine Prawerman (bass cl, composition) Laurent Blondiau (tr) Luc Evens (b) Franck Vaillant (dr)
&
Fatou Traoré (choregraphy, danse) Yvan Bertrem, Yphun Chiem, Pascal N’Zamba, M.“Ben” Benaji, Saïd Ouadrassi (dance) Linda Wauts (rap)

Malo VALLOIS PHENIX QUINTET
Malo Vallois (g, composition) Stéphane Payen (as, composition) Olivier Py (ts, composition) Jean-Philippe Morel (b) Ianik Tallet (dr)

He performed or recorded with

Serge Adam, Dwight Adams, Jeanne Added, Sophie Agnel, Christophe Alary, Steve Argüelles, Tom Arthurs, Nazim Benkaci, Pierre Bernard, Boris Blanchet, Johnny Brierley, Sébastien Brun, Sean Carpio, Daniel Casimir, Fabrizio Cassol, Sylvain Cathala, Samuel Cereghini, Stéphane Chausse, Keyvan Chemirani, Wilfried Chevallier, Paul Clarvis, Médéric Collignon, Richard Combes, François Corneloup, Howard Curtis, Benoît Delbecq, Daniel Diaz, Benjamin Duboc, Jozef Dumoulin, Guillaume Dutrieux, Julien Eil, Roman Filiu, Robin Fincker, Fabian Fiorini, Patrick Fradet, Stéphane Galland, Nadjib Gamoura, Minino Garay, Théo Girard, Jean-Yves Gratius, DJ Grazzhoppa, Dick Griffin, Alexandra Grimal, Thomas Grimonprez, Joël Grip, Johan Guidou, Ronan Guilfoyle, Amine Hamerouch (aka Aminoss), Wendell Harrison, Michel Hatzigeorgiou, Peter Hertmans, Jasper Hoiby, Aaron James, Rafael Koerner, Kirk Lightsey, Sébastien Llado, Norbert Lucarain, Martina Lundshof, Kheireddine M'Kachiche, Thierry Madiot, Michel Massot, Pablo Mendes, Gigi Meroni, François Merville, Malik Mezzadri (aka Magwic Malik), Alcyona Mick, Christophe Monniot, Pablo Nemirovsky, Julien Ome, Guillaume Orti, Fred Pallem, Marguerite Papazoglou, Benoist Raffin, Jean-François Riffaud, Gilbert Roggi, Julien Rousseau, Manu Roux, Makoto Sato, Barak Schmool, Olivier Sens, Julian Siegel, Rorry Simmons, Dave Smith, Martin Stepanik, Nicolas Stephan, Leo Taylor, Sébastien Texier, Toots Thielemans, François Thuillier, Jean Toussaint, Pierre-Alexandre Tremblay, Bo Van Der Werf, Pierre Van Dormael, Jeroen Van Herzeele, Sanne Van Hek, Erwin Vann, Chris Vatalaro, Robin Verheyen, Eric Vhernes, Renald Villoteau, Arnaud Vincent, Stefanus Vivens, Reggie Washington, Benjamin Weidekamp, Claude Whipple ...