Robin Stevens

Born in Wales in 1958, Robin Stevens studied at Dartington College (where he played the Elgar Cello Concerto with the College Orchestra), the Royal Northern College of Music (with cello as principal study, under Raphael Sommer and Moray Welsh), and Manchester and Birmingham Universities, before working for five years as Music Director and Pastoral Worker of St. Paul’s Church, York. During his time in York, Robin wrote a considerable quantity of choral music, congregational hymns and solo songs, which became an integral part of worship at St. Paul’s.

There followed three years as Head of Music in a West Yorkshire Comprehensive School, before a debilitating illness struck, keeping Robin out of full-time employment for the next seventeen years.

Returning to full health in 2007, Robin began a PhD in Composition at Manchester University, where his supervisors were Philip Grange and Kevin Malone. Robin’s PhD centred on the creation of large-scale structures in a contemporary idiom, and unusually, all six compositions in his final portfolio were substantial works, constituting ‘an outstanding submission’, in the words of his external examiner, John Pickard.

Away from music, Robin has in recent years provided Maths support as a volunteer in a Manchester Primary School. He enjoys current affairs, holds loquacious dinner parties, thrives on stimulating conversation, is a keen cyclist, preaches occasionally, and is a regular at the Wythenshawe Park Run.

Robin came to serious composition relatively late, his formative years being dominated by mainstream Western Classical Music – singing in school and church choirs, playing cello in the county youth orchestra and in a string quartet – rather than much exposure to the Contemporary Music scene. Perhaps as a result, the traditional musical elements of melody, harmony and counterpoint still feature strongly in his music: he enjoys exploring aspects of texture and timbre, but in contrast to some of his peers, these are almost always secondary elements in his music, rather than the heart of the matter.

Robin particularly relishes the challenge of writing for ‘Cinderella’ instruments and ensembles – those with a low profile that tend to have limited repertoire, such as tuba quartet, euphonium duet, bassoon trio, double bass, and guitar duet. Robin loves working personally with individual instrumentalists and singers, and the majority of the music on the Prevailing Winds album was premiered by local musicians at his annual charity concerts in Didsbury, South Manchester.

Robin’s major works include two String Quartets and a String Quintet (soon to be released on the Divine Art label); Fantasy Sonata for violin and piano and Sonata Romantica for cello and piano; Five Portraits for bassoon trio; Romantic Fantasy for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet; a Bassoon Concerto; Brass Odyssey for brass band and six percussionists; Mourning into Dancing for symphony orchestra; and a Te Deum for vocal soloists, choir, organ and orchestra. Robin has also recorded a couple of albums of his own songs (Fire and Inspire and Whispers in the Wasteland) and a disc of his compositions for solo cello, entitled Reconciliation. He is currently working on a Cello Concerto and a Clarinet Quintet, the latter for John Bradbury.

www.robinstevenscomposer.co.uk

(photo: Iain Andrews)