Hitting the high notes
Falkirk-born pianist and composer Euan Stevenson leads his band New Focus in concert at the Tolbooth in Stirling on Friday, May 26. Music runs in Stevenson’s family. His grandmother’s cousin was Muir Mathieson, the Stirling-born conductor of more than a thousand film soundtracks, including the music for Brief Encounter and Alfred Hitchcock’sVertigo.
Originally a classical player, Stevenson became interested in jazz in his teens and he won a scholarship, sponsored by the London jazz club owner and saxophonist Ronnie Scott, to study jazz piano at Birmingham Conservatoire in 1999.
He has since gone on to perform in concerts and masterclasses throughout the UK, Europe and the US and he formed New Focus in 2011 with saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski.