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| Stevens & Pound – Delia Stevens and Will Pound |
On 21 June 2025 at Stromness City Corridor as a part of the St Magnus Pageant, the duo Stevens & Pound current Ascending – a cross-genre live performance filled with authentic compositions and reimaginations following the artistic evolution of classical composers who had been impressed by the English People Revival. After which on 23 June on the competition in St Magnus Cathedral, Stevens & Pound be a part of one other duo, Grant & McQuade for Sharing and Gathering, a large and diverse programme and the place they collaborate for the primary time.
Right here, percussionist Delia Stevens – one half of the classical-folk collaboration Stevens & Pound – displays on her definition of success; from the place she is as a musician at this time and while rising up within the classical music trade.
The unique grasp plan:
Again within the day, this was my imaginative and prescient for reaching “success”:
Get grade 8 distinction. Get into the Nationwide Youth Orchestra of Nice Britain. Win BBC Younger Musician of the Yr. Get into music school with a full scholarship. Win all the opposite music competitions. I’m formally recognised as “gifted” by others. I get all of the live shows (no admin woes). My mission is to indicate the world how AMAZING percussion is and that there’s extra to it than simply taking part in the triangle every so often in the back of an orchestra.
A decade or so on, a few of that type of occurred and most of it didn’t, or it was a very small slice of the pie. And I now have a totally completely different view of what “success” appears like as a musician.
How will we Outline Success within the Classical Music Business?
There was some reality in that dream. As a result of within the classical music trade, the people who find themselves programming all of the music aren’t essentially virtuoso instrumentalists themselves. And not possible to be a percussionist, or really feel comfy on judging the deserves of 1. So how do they know which percussionist is “one of the best”?
It was necessary to me again then that I performed tough music which might be applicable for a contest or examination. I used to be not notably anxious on the time about how beneficiant this music was to the listener, however extra that it was in a roundabout way personally satisfying to play, or accomplish; that it made me develop and that it impressed my academics, friends and the classical music neighborhood.
I considered myself as pursuing a “artistic” profession – particularly with the title “musician” after my identify. The supply of this creativity got here from what I thought-about to be a uniquely private interpretation of this music. Nonetheless, this was contextualised by the necessity for technical perfection, executed in a stylistically appropriate approach for the historic context of the time and as devoted to the rating and the composer’s intentions as doable.
Is it doable to genuinely innovate inside a lot expectation to imitate, particularly when the music you’re performing is continually being judged with a rating sheet in an examination atmosphere?
The issue the curators have is that quite a lot of classical musicians play the identical music. Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending has been voted “the most well-liked piece of music” a file twelve instances within the annual Traditional FM Corridor of Fame. And the anticipated commonplace can solely be described as perfectionism. I used to be working with the Chief Conductor of the BBC Singers Sofi Jeannin who summed it up properly: “We play live shows as if we’re recording, but we in some way anticipate our recordings to sound like live shows”. Orchestras even costume the identical – in a black uniform with a tonne of specs – transferring an excessive amount of, overly expressive facial expressions, pink hair… these moments of individualism are deemed to be “a distraction from the music”.
Who Decides Who’s Profitable?
It helps if there’s a panel of virtuoso (or previously virtuoso) musicians who can resolve who essentially the most devoted “interpreters” of the rating are after which create a menu for everybody else to know who’s one of the best. At one level throughout music school, I realised that each one of my ‘performances’ that month had been an examination, audition or competitors.
A few of this skilled objectivity is after all subjective. A non-specialist viewers had been really extra in a position to efficiently guess who an skilled panel selected to win a classical music competitors by watching silent performances than by listening to audio-only renditions of the identical performances.
Ticket gross sales or how many individuals would purchase the album and hearken to it obsessively didn’t matter to me again then. I used to be not trying to be “well-known” like a pop star (actually, I nonetheless hate having my image taken and was a really shy youngster). I used to be used to a assured payment – usually put up by a sponsor of the competition/music society fairly than whether or not the live performance bought properly – not worrying an excessive amount of if I or the viewers was going to “like” or perceive the music or signal as much as the mailing checklist after the live performance and grow to be a “fan” for each single undertaking I used to be concerned in on stage. I used to be there to serve the music, considerably anonymously.
What about Different Genres?
Once I arrange a world music band after music school, the very first thing I did was search for a contest we may enter…however I couldn’t discover any. What now?
Working with harmonica participant Will Pound – who grew up within the people world – has been attention-grabbing. He thinks in groups (PR, agent, supervisor, plugger for sync), album cycles (write – file – launch – tour – PR), offers (royalties, viewers numbers, field workplace splits). He already had a emblem, a press pack, and a thriving social media following who actually care about his subsequent live performance/launch/tour. Not that I used to be residing beneath a rock – I’d contemplate myself to be a considerably savvy, pretty organised and entrepreneurial particular person, however this was a special mind-set fully.
Stereotypes and Expectations
Musically, Will might be happier to let an concept breathe longer than I’m comfy with or to choose a extra fashionable piece of music to play.
Nonetheless, simply as classical music will be perceived as “it’s important to be educated to know it”, stuffy or frankly, boring – people music comes with its personal waistcoat-related plethora of picture issues. And it additionally has the constraints of a residing museum that classical music faces within the twenty first century – that there’s a “appropriate” technique to “interpret” the music “because it was initially performed” with the added the Aristocracy drawback that you must be “born” into a practice with the intention to do it correctly.
Will’s sheer mastery and musicianship blows all of those preconceptions out of the water; roughly ten seconds after you’ve heard him play you’ve modified your thoughts. The Each day Telegraph described him as “One of many world’s high harmonica gamers” and UNCUT Journal as “a grasp of the mouth harp”.
What does Success Imply for me Now?
Earlier in my profession I allowed my success to be outlined by judging panels, competitors outcomes and examination marks. Today I’ve a totally completely different benchmark.
Success to me is the power to let go fully to the music and the efficiency. Enjoying music I’m fully in love with and sharing it with an viewers as an act stemming from generosity fairly than boasting. Accessing the sensation of uninhibited full expression, the mastery of technical freedom that by no means blocks what you need to say, boundless pleasure and whole reference to the opposite musicians on stage and the viewers. It might be in a room of 4 folks so long as they’re completely engaged within the music – the status of the gig shouldn’t be necessary for this sense. when it occurs and it’s up there with one of the best issues I find out about life.
After a live performance I curated and performed in just lately, a classical musician got here as much as me on the finish and stated “That’s the most pleasure I’ve ever skilled on stage. It was as for those who had been floating above the music. Thanks.” That meant quite a bit to me as a result of they’d primarily described my new measure of “success” again to me.
Delia – Stevens & Pound
The St Magnus Pageant runs from 20 to 27 June 2025, additional particulars from the competition web site.
The weblog is free, however I might be delighted for those who had been to indicate your appreciation by shopping for me a espresso.
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- Extra emotional resonance than you would possibly anticipate: Jonathan Dove & Alasdair Middleton’s Itch at Opera Holland Park – opera overview
- Intrigued by tales & narratives: members of Apollo’s Cupboard on their musical exploration of 18th century actress Kitty Clive – interview
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- Anselm McDonnell’s Politics of the Creativeness: Dazzling aural journey, political commentary & playfulness mix with severe objective – cd overview
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- A terrific sense of collaboration: composer Colin Matthews and author William Boyd on their first opera, A Go to to Buddies – interview
- One thing memorable: Jacqueline Stucker, David Bates & La Nuova Musica in Handel’s Alcina & Rodelinda at Wigmore Corridor – live performance overview
- Dwelling
