Anna Wendy Stevenson
Item Posted: Wednesday 15th March , 2006
Anna Wendy performed her New Voices composition at this January's Celtic Connections, and our following review appeasred in FIDDLE ON magazine (Spring 2006)
NEW VOICES AT CELTIC CONNECTIONS
Colin Hynd, Festival Director of Celtic Connections explains what the New Voices commissions are all about: ‘Since 1998, Celtic Connections has commissioned composers to produce new pieces of music based on traditional themes. These very special events promote the composition of new work in Scotland with the aim of helping to keep traditional music alive and flourishing. Many of the musicians who are given the projects relish the opportunity to experiment with new styles and new influences or simply appreciate being give the chance to showcase their own work to a large audience, often working with large numbers of their musical peers to produce some of the greatest highlights of the festival.’
In the past specially commissioned pieces have been composed for New Voices by Session A9 fiddler, Adam Sutherland; the talented harpist, Jennifer Port; the refined Gaelic singer Maggie McInnes, as well as such well known Scottish musicians as Aiden O’Rourke, Tom Richardson, James Ross and Gillian Frame. A New Voices commission is now, therefore, seen as an important watershed for up and coming composers.
The New Voices project gives young musicians a chance to explore something different. As one of those commissioned this year, fiddler Anna-Wendy Stevenson said: ‘It is a massive honour to be asked. Most of us will have written a number of short tunes, but here it all has to be orchestrated, and the experience of dealing with a wider range of instruments over a much longer time period than usual is an enormous challenge.’
Her commissioned piece was a shining diamond in the tiara of the festival. Tight orchestration and subtle yet complex tunes brought ‘My Edinburgh’ alive for all the audience. A personal musical journey through the town of her upbringing brought the place to life in a way that few musicians have managed. Conjuring up pictures as diverse as the elegance and formality of Edinburgh New Town; Grove Street (the street of 100 smells); the sound of horses on cobbled streets; the exuberance of a pub session at Sandy Bells, a favourite watering hole of Edinburgh musicians; to the dark side of Edinburgh’s history with a dark, harsh and claustrophobic piece on the notorious Burke and Hare.
Unusually the composition interweaved photographs and the spoken word with the music, which added extra dimensions to the piece; it also illustrates her skill as a teacher and tutor. Without her being in any way patronising, the link of the physicality of the photographs added a depth of musical understanding for many of the audience.
No-one would think that this is the first major orchestral piece by the composer. It flowed seamlessly, was well crafted and had moments of great beauty. The octet was effortlessly balanced – here was a musician firmly, yet sensitively, in charge of her materials and peers. ‘ My Edinburgh’ would, with its poetry and words, transpose well to book or poetry festivals, and be comfortably shifted to a ‘classical’ stage, so it is likely that it will be heard again.
The commission was the culmination of a frenetic year for Stevenson. Leaving her band ‘Fine Friday’ to concentrate more on composition and various recording projects, she completed a cd ‘ Gowd and Silver’ with her well-known grandfather Ronald Stevenson, which highlights two musicians steeped in a powerful mix of the classical and traditional idioms. For many reasons, this can be claimed as a very special recording. Grandfather and granddaughter, teacher and pupil, the composer and the performer - all these forms are embraced and the threads connecting them explored. As a virtuoso pianist and composer of international stature, Ronald Stevenson's place in the annals is assured. With his life-long passion for Scotland's traditional music, Ronald has arranged many pieces, including all of those on this recording. After the relative freedom of traditional performance, every moment of Anna-Wendy’s extensive classical training has been required for this performance with her grandfather. This is more a drawing room recital than a folk club or festival performance. The cd shows Anna-Wendy as a great technician, with the ability to pull off carefully planned improvisations.
Anna-Wendy has also just launched her debut solo album. The embryo of this was a tour of Argyll with the brilliant young pianist, James Ross, two years ago, and is a wonderful mix of the old and the new. Some of the most poignant tunes around come from her pen, and this cd illustrates that her composition of tunes is as assured as her longer piece at Celtic Connections. Surely she is a composer and player whose time has come, and we will be hearing a lot more of her in the future!