Ronald Stevenson

Ronald Stevenson was a Scottish virtuoso pianist and a prolific composer of over 500 works. In the tradition of Liszt, Godowsky, and Busoni, he also introduced and concertized his own compositions. He was highly respected as an educator and in constant demand as a guest lecturer at universities worldwide. Stevenson was born in 1928 in Blackburn, England, which was known at the time for its production of cotton textiles. His mother worked at a cotton mill, and his father was a railroad fireman and a talented amateur singer. Stevenson spent his childhood in Blackburn, where he attended school and studied the piano. By the age of 14, he was already employed as an accompanist and composer for the Blackburn Ballet Company. After his graduation in 1945, he won a scholarship to attend the Royal Manchester College of Music where he studied piano with Iso Elinson, and composition with Richard Hall. He was served with a prison sentence in 1948 after he refused to serve in the military, because of his values as a pacifist. After he was released in 1950, he taught at the Boldon Colliery School in Durham for two years, and he held teaching positions at several other schools in the area through the 1950s. He married Marjorie Spedding in 1952, and they eventually had a son and two daughters together. Stevenson was appointed a senior composition lecturer at the University of Capetown in 1963, and it was also around this time when he premiered his 90-minute-long Passacaglia on DSCH for piano, based on Shostakovich’s initials. He also hosted a BBC radio show where he explored the music of Busoni with lectures and performances, and in 1966 he was awarded the Living Artist’s Award from the Scottish Arts Council and the Harriet Cohen International Music Award. In the 1970s, he continued composing and performing recitals of his music. He resumed his radio series on Busoni, and many of his recitals were also broadcast. Other projects with the BBC include a TV documentary on Busoni in 1974, and a radio series which explored traditional Scottish folk music in 1981. Stevenson was in high demand as a guest lecturer throughout the 1980s, with visits to the Shanghai Conservatory in 1985, the Juilliard School in 1987, and the universities of Melbourne and Western Australia on many occasions. He continued composing and teaching through the 1990s, and some of his works from this time include a Violin Concerto commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin in 1992, and a Cello Concerto commissioned by the Scottish National Orchestra in 1995. His later works include the Pan-Celtic Wind Quintet from 2000, and in 2007 he finished the choral symphony Praise of Ben Dorain, which took over 20 years to complete. Stevenson passed away in 2015, survived by his wife and three children. Since his death, his music has been performed and recorded by many artists, including Kenneth Hamilton, Igor Levit, and Christopher Guild, who released Ronald Stevenson: Piano Music, Vol. 6 in 2023.
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