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Gifted jazz pianist and composer Euan Stevenson helped English Chamber Orchestra perform Ukraine's national anthem as prelude to his weekend date in Nairn


By Alasdair Fraser

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Euan Stevenson (right) with Konrad Wiszniewski
Euan Stevenson (right) with Konrad Wiszniewski

A multi-talented musician set to appear in Nairn this weekend has paid a high-level musical tribute to the people of Ukraine.

Pianist and composer Euan Stevenson, of the New Focus duo, will play Nairn Community & Arts Centre on Saturday.

But the Falkirk-born talent broke off from preparations for the date when contacted at short notice by the English Chamber Orchestra who commissioned him to arrange the Ukrainian national anthem for them.

The orchestra wanted to play the anthem, which translates as “The glory and Freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished”, at their concert at Cadogan Hall in London on Sunday past.

The performance featured the legendary virtuoso violinist Pinchas Zukerman and renowned cellist Amanda Forsyth.

Stevenson, who studied composition at Birmingham Conservatoire, has had pieces premiered on both sides of the Atlantic, was more than happy to oblige.

“To write for someone as accomplished and respected internationally as Pinchas Zukerman is an incredible honour,” he said.

“It was also an honour to be able to pay tribute to the people of Ukraine in such a way. I went along to the concert and Pinchas and the orchestra played the piece beautifully.

“It was a very moving way to open the evening in the current circumstances.”

New Focus partners Stevenson (piano) with Konrad Wiszniewski, who is the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s star saxophonist.

The duo will perform jazz standards and original tunes from their widely-acclaimed albums New Focus and New Focus on Song.

Music runs in the Stevenson Family – his grandmother was the first woman to graduate from the Royal Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) in Glasgow.

The Scot composes on her Steinway piano.

One of her cousins was the film soundtrack conductor Muir Mathieson, who conducted the music from Brief Encounter among more than a thousand other films.

Another was the composer Cedric Thorpe Davie, who studied with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Zoltán Kodály and designed St Andrews University’s music course.

The programme New Focus will play in Nairn combines his love of classical music with the duo’s expertise in jazz.

“I’ve believed for a long time that there are many links between the two musical styles,” he said.

“Classical composers and jazz composers often tend to favour the same keys and the influence of composers such as Debussy and Satie on jazz musicians including Miles Davis and Bill Evans is quite marked.”

The duo have yet to decide whether they will play the Ukrainian national anthem at Saturday’s concert.

“We wouldn’t want to appear to be jumping on a bandwagon or taking advantage of a situation that’s obviously horrendous for everyone caught up in it,” the pianist stressed.

“But if we can find a way of playing the music that’s sympathetic to the Ukrainian’s plight, it would be good to show support, even if we are a long way away.”


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