Euan Stevenson is a Scottish composer, pianist, improviser and educator. His music encompasses
classical, jazz, folk and pop.

Stevenson has performed in solo, duo and group settings in clubs, theatres and concert halls throughout the UK, Europe and America.His compositions and performances have been broadcast across BBC Radio, Classic FM and Jazz FM and his music has been recorded and performed by ensembles such as The BBC Big Band, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, The Guy Barker Orchestra, Georgia Cécile Quintet and Earthtones Trio.

BBC Radio Scotland have described his compositions as "lush, modern and brilliantly accessible" and The Sunday Times' reviewer found his writing “concise and hauntingly original.” He has been shortlisted for The Scottish Album of the Year Award, the Scottish Jazz Awards (he was recipient of the Emerging Artist Award in 2013 and nominated for Instrumentalist of the Year in 2021), and in 2015 he was one of three UK composers nominated for the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Composition.

Film Music

In 2016, Stevenson wrote and performed the original solo piano score for the 2018 BIFA Discovery Award winning feature film, Voyageuse by May Miles Thomas. The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw selected the film as one of the Top 10 Documentaries of 2018.

Animation

In 2021, Stevenson was commissioned to write a suite of music for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra for a new animated children’s story. Details of the premiere and performances to follow. The finished animation will be available to download on the Scottish Book Bug App.

Chamber Music

Stevenson created Earthtones Trio with Royal Scottish National Orchestra Associate Principal Cellist Betsy Taylor and internationally renowned RSNO Principal Flautist, Katherine Bryan. In December 2019, global interest in the group’s distinctive pallet was sparked when Classic FM featured the video of Stevenson’s haunting arrangement of the ancient hymn of Advent, O Come, O Come Emmanuel with subsequent Christmas releases also being supported by the popular station including Stevenson’s arrangements of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and O’ Holy Night.

Choral

In 2019, Stevenson received three choral premieres of newly commissioned works. His Missa Brevis (Kyrie, Gloria and Agnus Dei) was commissioned by Dollar Academy Chamber Choir to commemorate the school’s Bicentenary in 2018 while across the pond in Norwalk, Ohio, Firelands Symphony Chorale premiered In a Foreign Land, a piece about exile and longing. Roberta Ahmanson of Fieldstead commissioned a setting of WB Yeats’ Cloths in Heaven, premiered by Choral Arts Initiative in Irvine, California in 2019.

Jazz

Over the past decade, Stevenson has collaborated and performed alongside many leading UK jazz musicians and vocalists, notably David Newton (Newton/Stevenson Piano Duo), Jim Mullen, Anita Wardell and Tina May. He has also enjoyed a long association as accompanist/co-writer/producer/arranger for emerging popular jazz singer Georgia Cécile, and in 2021, following the release of Cécile’s debut album (all songs co-written and arranged by Stevenson) supported Gregory Porter for four nights at the Royal Albert Hall.

Stevenson’s arrangements for jazz orchestra have been performed by The BBC Big Band, Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra, and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland. With the Euan Stevenson Trio, Stevenson curates and performs the jazz piano retrospective shows “Ellington to Evans”. Stevenson also co- leads One For Benny with clarinetist Tom Gibbs, performing music inspired by Benny Goodman.

Solo Piano

Many of Stevenson’s compositions begin life in solo piano form. He favours tightly wrought, melodic narratives, typically utilising simple song structures. When performing solo, he often incorporates improvisation to develop compositions in subtly different directions, maintaining a freshness and spontaneity that often serves to shed new light on the material with each passing performance. Stevenson has released two solo piano albums: Light Cycles (2005) and Portraits, Preludes and Landscapes (2007). A third album, Solo Piano Nocturnes, is due for release on iOcco Music in autumn 2022.

New Focus

Maintaining a synergy between ‘fixed and free’ elements within classical, jazz, folk and pop genres is the guiding principle of New Focus, a long standing musical collaboration with saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski. Their creative partnership has borne two critically acclaimed, genre defying albums for jazz quartet, string quartet and harp, both released on the London label, Whirlwind Recordings.

Lecture Recitals

“The audience in the well-filled auditorium went home royally entertained, and probably a little better educated as well”. 

Herald Scotland

In recent years, New Focus has evolved to include a duo presentation of ‘The Classical Connection’ - a musical exploration and commentary on the influence classical composers have exerted on jazz musicians. Similarly, Stevenson’s Mikrovisations, an ever-evolving series of improvised miniature études for solo piano, offers audiences fascinating insights into the compositional languages of 20th Century masters in both genres.

Tuition

Stevenson is a part time lecturer and piano tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Glasgow University. In addition to participating in workshops and summer schools, he also enjoys coaching a small number of private piano pupils, both online and in person, specialising in techniques for improvisation and composition.