Stephen Beville is a pianist and composer reminiscent of past masters. Acclaimed as a 'rising star' by the Manchester Evening News, he has studied with such eminent figures in the musical world as Wolfgang Rihm. He made his 'concerto debut' while still at school with Mozart's piano concerto K491, and has gone on to perform with orchestras such as the Baden Philharmonie. Stephen has given recitals thoughout Britain and Germany - his performances receiving outstanding reviews. He has made recordings and given interviews for the SWR (South German Radio).

From 1989 to 1994, he attended the Junior Academy (Royal Academy of Music) learning composition, piano and conducting. Having won a Yamaha scholarship, he read Music at the Universities of York and Huddersfield, and studied piano with Peter Katin. During this time he played much contemporary music, including electro-acoustic pieces for insruments and tape, and performed at the Media-Mix and Huddersfield Contemporary Music festivals. He graduated in 1998 with First Class Honours and was awarded the Wilfrid Mellers prize and the Rodwell prize.

Stephen continued his studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where his piano teachers included Benjamin Frith and Martin Roscoe. He holds the Postgraduate Diploma and Mmus in Performance and Composition, as well as the Professional Performance Diploma with Distinction - the most prestigious award of the RNCM. His acclaimed performances have included Boulez at the international 'Glories of the Keyboard' festival and Copland at the 'American Reflections' festival. Stephen is the winner of RNCM scholarships for piano and composition, and is the recipient of the Lucy Pierce Award. He has played with the RNCM Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, and The New Ensemble on a range of contemporary music, not least his own work.

Stephen's music has been performed at distinguished venues such as the RAM, the British Music Information Centre and the Barbican, the RNCM, and the ZKM (Centre for Art and Media-Technology) and the Insel Theatre in Karlsruhe, Germany. The early 'Chamber Concerto' was premiered by the Manson Ensemble (1993), before being selected by the Society for Promotion of New Music for a performance by Music-projects, conducted by Martyn Brabbins. Other works that have been short-listed by the SPNM include the 'Ballade for Eight Players', 'Purgatory Pieces' for string quartet, and 'Epicycle' for chamber orchestra - first performed by The New Ensemble in 2000 (directed by Andre de Ridder), before being revised for its German premiere by the Badische Staatskappelle.

In 2001, Stephen won a DAAD scholarship to attend the Musikhochschule in Karlsruhe, where he studied composition with Wolfgang Rihm and piano with Fany Solter, obtaining two Konzertexamens with highest marks. In addition, he received a scholarship from the Heinrich Strobel Foundation (Freiburg) to support his studies there, where he focused on combining live instrumental sound with electronic resources available at the computer studio. This resulted in works with piano, such as 'The Echoing Sky', 'Three Michelangelo Pieces' and 'Fashionism - Scenes of Youth' for electric guitar, piano, percussion and electronics. All have been performed to critical acclaim; the first piece was presented in collaboration with the Badische Konservatorium to mark 400 years of keyboard music, and was featured at the international 'Klangriffe' festival of new music. Recent works include the 'Grand Partita' for Speaker and Orchestra - inspired by the composer's reading of 'Wahrheit und Methode' (Truth and Method) by German philospher Hans-Georg Gadamer.

Stephen has participated in masterclasses with Christopher Elton, Bernard Roberts, Arnaldo Cohen, Sergei Dorensky, Eduardo Hubert, and was a finalist at the Beethoven Intercollegiate competition 2000.

In addition to his musical activities, Stephen is a freelance writer on music and culture. His essays include 'The Recognition of the Composer Today' and its companion piece, 'On the Musical Illiteracy of the British Public', in which he argues that learning to read and write music should be made compulsory in schools.

PRIZES AND AWARDS: Yamaha Scholarship (Huddersfield, 1994). Wilfred Mellors Prize (York, 1996). Rodwell Prize (Huddersfield, 1998). BMus Honours Degree - First Class (Huddersfield, 1998). Postgraduate Diploma in Performance and Composition (RNCM, 1999). Thompson-Mcclaren Scholarship for Piano (RNCM, 2000). Sellers Scholarship for Composition (RNCM, 2000). MMus for Performance and Composition (RNCM, 2000). Professional Performance Diploma with Distinction (RNCM, 2001). Lucy Pierce Award (RNCM, 2001). DAAD Scholarship, 2001-2002. Heinrich Strobel Foundation Scholarship, (Freiburg, 2003). Konzertexamen in Performance - First Class (Karlsruhe, 2003). Konzertexamen in Composition - First Class (Karlsruhe, 2004).

LIST OF WORKS (SELECTED): Ballade for Eight Players (1997). Prologue - Study for String Quartet (1998). Three Piano Pieces (1998). Epicycle - for Chamber Orchestra (1999- rev. 2004). Meditations at the Cross - for Large Ensemble (2000). The Echoing Sky - for Piano and Electronics (2001-2002). Three Michelangelo Pieces - for Piano, Electronics and Tape (2002). Fashionism - Scenes of Youth, for Electric Guitar, Piano, Percussion and Electronics (2003). Scenes from Dreams, for piano (1998/2006). Purgatory Pieces - for String Quartet (2004). Nocturnes - for Violin and Piano (2005). Grand Partita for large orchestra (2007-8).

PERFORMANCE REVIEWS:

'Second in the festival of American music at the RNCM was this splendid recital which allowed rising stars to get to grips with challenging new music. It was a ringing success. There were performances of musical conviction . . . beginning with Stephen Beville in Copland's 'Variations for Piano', which is Copland in a vein far removed from Simple Gifts.' Manchester Evening News 30/11/2000.

Theatre Royal Recital, Wakefield (2001).

'excellently presented...I feel playing like that certainly gives the Royal Northern College of Music the fine reputation it so rightly deserves... I look forward to further dealings with this outstanding school.' Richard Herriott, Laureat of the Nikolai Rubenstein International Competition 2000 (11/07/2001).

'Well Balanced Between Intellect and Emotion. Impressive: The Pianist and Composer Stephen Beville in the Velte-Saal.'

'Stephen Beville, studying for the Konzertexamen at the Musikhochschule (as pianist with Fany Solter and as composer with Wolfgang Rihm) gave an evening concert in the Velte-Saal. The young artist began with Beethoven's Sonata in E-flat, Op 7. In the first movement, he clearly realised the formal structure. Unpretentious and so well learned as to be self-expressed, he gave the Largo intensive shape. His economic and meaningful use of the pedal in the Allegro movement was very good to hear, and in the hearty virtuosity of the Rondo, there was a fine difference in conception.

Outstanding pianism was again evident in his own Three Michelangelo Pieces for piano, with the titles 'The Rebellious Slave', 'The Awakening Slave' and 'Atlas'. They were full of interesting ideas, idiomatic for the instrument, and impressive for the listener.

The question how he, as such a strong intellectual artist would play Schumann, was answered in the three movements of the Fantasie, Op 17, which he chose to end with. The solution was to be found in a knowing between Intellect and Emotion. From a clear structure, but never with harsh touch, the melody bloomed, the rhythmn was precise, and the dynamics were very carefully realised. Stephen Beville's extraordinary, subjective interpretation left a deep impression.' Badische Neueste Nachrichten - 30/07/2003.

'Beville played (Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 5) with heart, projected his part with sound-volume, and there were some fine lyrical moments. . . he played with Virtuosity and musical-energy.' Badisches Tagblatt -02/12/2003.

'A wonderfully fine Beethoven. . . It was a great pleasure to hear him.' Badische Neueste Nachrichten - 02/12/2003.

'I thought, and so did a few others, that your horn and piano recital was absolutely stunning. You are a very fine pianist and I really like the clarity of your playing which lifted the 'Spindle', Burrell....well the lot really. Well done.' Catherine Pluygers, Director of the London New Wind Festival - 10/11/2008.

'Beville numbers as one of the most talented young musicians to emerge from the UK.' Frankfurter Neue Press - 10/04/2010.

'Klavierkonzert in the KulturForum..... The Briton needs no dramatic effects or electronic gimmickery to hold his listeners in thrall.

Famous works from great composers, five of his own compositions, and a piano. With this concert recital he enchanted his audience...They could sit back without distraction and absolutely savour the wonderful details of the music... Beville demonstrated his versatility with a programme of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and his own compositions...

With a homage to Chopin on the 200th anniversary of his birth, Beville concluded his demanding recital with the Scherzo No 4 in E, Op 54 and the Fantasie in F minor, Op 49. Beville underlined his class with the whole programme which gave opportunity to showcase his artistic and technical skill and great stylistic range... The concert was nourishment for the heart, soul and ear of the enthusiastic music-lover.' Wetterauer-Zeitung - 21/04/2010.

COMPOSITION REVIEWS:

'The detailed focus that Beville applies to pitches and their reployment in musical space is really interesting, because the result is genuinely expressive while avoiding conventional gestures and textures. . . In this his interests seem not so far removed from a composer like (Milton) Babbitt, with his emphasis on presenting relationships whose totality ramifies throughout the musical space in all its dimensions - in time, registar, rhythmn, duration and timbre.' 07/1998 - Composer Justin Conolley on the Prologue for String Quartet.

'...like Webern, an immense range of thought is concentrated within a compressed but intense time-scale and texture.' 07/1998 - Richard Steinitz, Founding director of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

'Beville's Epicycle received a typically committed performance tonight. A postgraduate composer and pianist, Epicycle presented some wonderful timbres with strong piano and brass parts while the strings were mainly colouristic.' RNCM Concert Review - 26/06/2000, Seen and Heard, Music on the Web.

'Moving into the Baroque sense is to formally point out Stephen Beville's Epicycle. This piece is strict in four structurally related sections, but every new section is announced by a mighty tam-tam. Beville's intensive, dense melodic lines filled the Form-corset.' Badische Neueste Nachrichten, 07/06/2004.

'It's an impressive piece... I particularly like the writing for wind and strings.' 08/2005 - Stephen Newbould, Artistic director of the BCMG on Epicycle.

'The Echoing Sky, by Stephen Beville, combines piano and live electronics. The piano was recorded live, and mixed with long delay or extreme echo. The echoes encircled the listener and were built up and passed around the hall from loudspeakers. Beville's time concept is harmonic, to which the pianist responded well.' BNN, 04/2002.

'Simply worked, but harmonious are (Beville's) Three Michelangelo Pieces for live electronics and piano. Clear piano motifs repeat themselves, and are treated playfully and developed. Then comes the live electronics; first as punctual hall-echo, then in every miniature with increasing differentiation that nontheless related well to the pianist's role. Beville was cautious and tasteful with the electronic possibilities; electronics and piano amounted to a unique and meditative sound-picture.' BNN- 03/07/2004.

'Electric guitar, percussion and electronics formed a trendy, easy-going band - only the Grooves were extra complex than usual, and the tone material was original. . . A bear-biting statement with high fun-factor...It was a pleasure throughout.' BNN on 'Fashionism - Scenes of Youth', 03/07/2004.

'He enchanted his audience with the German premiere of five pieces from his 2006 composition - 'Scenes from Dreams.' Wetterauer Zeitung - 21/04/2010.