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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 Competition, the duo Stevens & Pound current Ascending – a cross-genre live performance stuffed with unique compositions and reimaginations following the inventive evolution of classical composers who have been impressed by the English Folks Revival. After which on 23 June on the pageant in St Magnus Cathedral, Stevens & Pound be part of one other duo, Grant & McQuade for Sharing and Gathering, a large and different 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 right now and while rising up within the classical music business.
The unique grasp plan:
Again within the day, this was my imaginative and prescient for attaining “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 concert events (no admin woes). My mission is to point out the world how AMAZING percussion is and that there’s extra to it than simply enjoying the triangle once in a while behind an orchestra.
A decade or so on, a few of that form of occurred and most of it didn’t, or it was a very small slice of the pie. And I now have a totally totally different view of what “success” seems to be like as a musician.
How will we Outline Success within the Classical Music Trade?
There was some reality in that dream. As a result of within the classical music business, the people who find themselves programming all of the music should not essentially virtuoso instrumentalists themselves. And most unlikely to be a percussionist, or really feel comfy on judging the deserves of 1. So how do they know which percussionist is “the perfect”?
It was necessary to me again then that I performed troublesome music which might be acceptable for a contest or examination. I used to be not significantly fearful on the time about how beneficiant this music was to the listener, however extra that it was not directly 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 “inventive” profession – particularly with the title “musician” after my identify. The supply of this creativity got here from what I thought of to be a uniquely private interpretation of this music. Nonetheless, this was contextualised by the necessity for technical perfection, executed in a stylistically appropriate manner for the historic context of the time and as trustworthy 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 surroundings?
The issue the curators have is that a variety of classical musicians play the identical music. Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending has been voted “the most well-liked piece of music” a document twelve occasions within the annual Traditional FM Corridor of Fame. And the anticipated customary 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 concert events as if we’re recording, but we someway anticipate our recordings to sound like concert events”. Orchestras even gown 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 probably the most trustworthy “interpreters” of the rating are after which create a menu for everybody else to know who’s the perfect. At one level throughout music school, I realised that each one of my ‘performances’ that month have been an examination, audition or competitors.
A few of this professional objectivity is after all subjective. A non-specialist viewers have been really extra in a position to efficiently guess who an professional 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 take heed to it obsessively didn’t matter to me again then. I used to be not seeking to be “well-known” like a pop star (the truth is, I nonetheless hate having my image taken and was a really shy baby). I used to be used to a assured price – usually put up by a sponsor of the pageant/music society moderately than whether or not the live performance offered effectively – 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 record after the live performance and grow to be a “fan” for each single venture I used to be concerned in on stage. I used to be there to serve the music, considerably anonymously.
What about Different Genres?
After 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 folks world – has been attention-grabbing. He thinks in groups (PR, agent, supervisor, plugger for sync), album cycles (write – document – launch – tour – PR), offers (royalties, viewers numbers, field workplace splits). He already had a brand, 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 dwelling beneath a rock – I might think about myself to be a considerably savvy, pretty organised and entrepreneurial particular person, however this was a distinct mind-set fully.
Stereotypes and Expectations
Musically, Will might be happier to let an thought breathe longer than I’m comfy with or to select a extra well-liked piece of music to play.
Nonetheless, simply as classical music may be perceived as “it’s a must to be educated to know it”, stuffy or frankly, boring – folks music comes with its personal waistcoat-related plethora of picture issues. And it additionally has the constraints of a dwelling museum that classical music faces within the twenty first century – that there’s a “appropriate” method to “interpret” the music “because it was initially performed” with the added the Aristocracy downside that you want to be “born” into a practice in an effort to do it correctly.
Will’s sheer mastery and musicianship blows all of those preconceptions out of the water; roughly ten seconds after you will have heard him play you will have modified your thoughts. The Day by 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 totally different benchmark.
Success to me is the power to let go utterly to the music and the efficiency. Taking part in music I’m utterly in love with and sharing it with an viewers as an act stemming from generosity moderately 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 complete reference to the opposite musicians on stage and the viewers. It could possibly be in a room of 4 folks so long as they’re completely engaged within the music – the status of the gig just isn’t necessary for this sense. You understand when it occurs and it’s up there with the perfect 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 mentioned “That’s the most pleasure I’ve ever skilled on stage. It was as for those who have been floating above the music. Thanks.” That meant so much to me as a result of that they had basically described my new measure of “success” again to me.
Delia – Stevens & Pound
The St Magnus Competition runs from 20 to 27 June 2025, additional particulars from the pageant web site.
The weblog is free, however I would be delighted for those who have been to point out your appreciation by shopping for me a espresso.
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- Residence
