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ROGER STEPTOE Composer |
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Photograph by Nicolas Lenfant |
Updated May 2008 |
| Roger Steptoe | |
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ROGER STEPTOE (born 1953) - Composer, pianist and teacher |
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"His style
evinces a refreshingly individual response to the English school from
Elgar to Tippett : fine craftsmanship, lyricism, rhythmic suppleness
and imaginatively free and translucent harmony, often alternating
diatonic and chromatic intervals." |
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‘Steptoe’s idiom
is distinctive, creating its own spaciousness through artful
counterpoint influenced by his mentor Alan Bush, subtly-nuanced harmony
and evocative lyricism’ |
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‘And now that
stylistic barriers have crumbled, and plurality is the order of the
day, we can begin to listen beyond the surface to the substance of this
nourishing and civilised music’ |
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BACKGROUND |
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| Whilst still a post-graduate student of Alan Bush at the Royal Academy of Music, London (1974-77), Roger Steptoe was appointed first Composer-in-Residence at Charterhouse School in Surrey, a post created in association with the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust. Apart from an opera, King of Macedon, to a libretto by Ursula Vaughan Williams, this period was dominated by songs and chamber music including his acclaimed first string quartet for the Coull Quartet’s 1976 London debut in the Purcell Room - ‘a well-worked substantial piece in one movement’ (Dominic Gill, Financial Times), the song-cycle Aspects and the elegiac Clarinet Quintet which introduced Steptoe’s music to a wider audience through a timely recording on the sadly-defunct Phoenix label - ‘a splendid work; perhaps the best for the medium since the Bliss Quintet’ (Malcolm MacDonald, Gramophone, 1982). | |
| During the 1980s and early 1990s, Steptoe taught harmony, composition, counterpoint and orchestration privately and as a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Many of his students have since made international careers, notably Rachel Portman, the Oscar-winning film composer. Throughout this period Steptoe’s music continued to receive regular performances by leading international performers throughout the world including the leading festivals in the UK, many major European cities (including tours for the British Council), the Far East, Australia, the USA and South America. Numerous broadcasts specially on BBC Radio 3 were given by the same artists. Steptoe toured internationally as a composer-pianist, made a number of recordings namely the songs of Vaughan Williams with the baritone, Peter Savidge, and the first recording in modern times of Walton’s Piano Quartet. | |
| For the UK publishing house, Alfred Lengnick, he created arrangements of instrumental sonatinas by Sir Malcolm Arnold. The newly-named Concertino for oboe and strings Op. 28a was recently recorded on the Decca label by Nicholas Daniel and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Vernon Handley. The Variations on a Ukrainian Folksong, originally for piano, was released in January 2008 on the Meridian label by the Isis Ensemble, directed by Jacques Cohen, with a concert at St James’s Piccadilly, London, on January 31st. | |
| Steptoe’s own music was represented on disc in the 1980s notably the String Quartet No. 1 played by the Coull Quartet, the song cycle ‘The Looking Glass’ for soprano, oboe and piano, to words by Ursula Vaughan Williams, and recorded by Lesley Garrett, Gordon Hunt and Jean Anderson respectively, Two Songs for baritone and piano with David Wilson-Johnson and the composer, the Clarinet Quintet with the Bochmann Quartet and David Campbell who also recorded the Two Impromptus for solo clarinet. Later in the 1980s Steptoe was commissioned by the countertenor, James Bowman, to write a work for countertenor and strings. An Elegy on the Death and Burial of Cock Robin was recorded by Bowman on the Meridian label. | |
| During this period Roger Steptoe was an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and an active committee member of organisations such as the Incorporated Society of Musicians, Composers’ Guild of Great Britain and the Royal Philharmonic Society. Between 1987 and 1993 he was responsible for the organisation of six International Composer Festivals at the Royal Academy of Music which featured the music of Messiaen, Henze, Berio, Carter, Schurmann and sixty ex-RAM composers. | |
| Biographical references include the Oxford Companion to Music, Oxford Dictionary of Music, Baker’s Dictionary, New Harvard Dictionary, Groves, International Who’s Who, Debrett’s People of Today, Dictionnaire Biographique des Musiciens, and, for 2008, the Dictionary of International Biography. | |
| Roger Steptoe has been a Full Member in the Performers and Composers Section of the Incorporated Society of Musicians from 1979 and has been nominated an Ordinary Councillor from April 2008. | |
| STEPTOE IN FRANCE | |
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| Photograph by Frédérique Avril | |
| Since 1999, Roger Steptoe has lived in and worked from Uzerche in the French Limousin, and from where he has witnessed a renaissance in his creative output with new and older works being taken up by orchestras, chamber ensembles and instrumentalists internationally. Recent performances have been heard in Zurich, Lisbon, New York City and State, Salt Lake City, London, Port Erin (Isle of Man), Glasgow, Paris, Lyon, Roque d’Antheron, Manchester and Canberra to name of few. During the last seven years, a number of existing works have been performed and recorded for CD by leading French and British performers. New works, too, have been commissioned, composed and performed and these have affirmed Steptoe’s reputation. | |
| Roger Steptoe’s long commitment to teaching and educational work continues as Composer-in-Residence and professor of analysis, harmony, composition and orchestration for the Conservatoire de Brive-la-Gaillarde. His senior students come from far and wide - Conservatories of Toulouse, Bordeaux, Paris as well as from Brive itself. | |
| Many of his works published by Stainer & Bell, London, are included on examination syllabuses and conservatoire entrance requirements worldwide. The 1983 Tuba Concerto was the set work for tubists to enter the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (CNSM) at Lyon in September 2005. | |
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STEPTOE
AT HOME AND ABROAD
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| Chamber Music | |
| THIRD QUARTET AND WILLIAM TURNER | |
| To date Steptoe has composed 4 string quartets - the first dating from 1976 and the most recent in 2003 as part of the composer’s 50th birthday celebrations. The third, from 2002, has been taken up as a research project by the London-based Kreutzer Quartet, leader, Peter Sheppard Skaerved. In five linked movements each part takes its inspiration from a watercolour by William Turner. 'Tempo' magazine for new music described the work as, “The subtitle ‘Five pictures without titles’ refers to the inspiration of Turner watercolours; and whilst not specifically programmatic, the piece indeed evokes a Turneresque impressionism, in its varied textures and colours. There is here an originality of design, evolving out of content, the five movements thematically integrated and cyclically linked through a palindrome structure at various levels.” The project is currently being created between the Kreutzer Quartet and Tate Britain. | |
| The most recent chamber work, Seven Miniatures for piano trio, was written for the Trio Magellan (Pierre Fouchenneret, violin, Antoine Pierlot, cello, and Julien Gernay, piano), and recorded in Paris in February 2008 for a forthcoming CD. | |
| Recent Instrumental Music | |
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Recent Instrumental Music For his 2001 recital on Debussy’s newly-restored Blüthner piano in the Musée Labenche d’art et d’histoire in Brive-la-Gaillarde, Roger Steptoe composed a Prelude, La Dame de Labenche - hommage à Claude Debussy. The composer gave the Paris premiere of the work as part of his Salle Cortot recital in April 2003 giving the first performance of his Sonata No. 3 as well as French premieres of the Second Sonata and the Three Nocturnes, a work written for his New York debut in 1991, in the same concert. The Prelude’s US premiere was given by the composer in February 2007 in the Recital Hall of the University of Texas San Antonio. |
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| The Ecole Nationale de Musique in Brive-la-Gaillarde commissioned a work for the Ensemble Hope in 2003. Composed for a quartet of ‘Cristalists’ playing the unique Cristal Baschet, this work entitled De l’angélus du matin de l’angélus du soir was premiered in January 2004 in Brive and later recorded by the same artists on CD and released in late 2006. | |
| Steptoe’s Clarinet Sonata was also composed in 2003 and given its first performance as part of that year’s Mananan International Festival on the Isle of Man by David Campbell with Julius Drake. The composer gave the USA premiere of the work with David Campbell in July of the same year as part of the International Clarinet Association’s conference in Salt Lake City. | |
| The French pianist, Charles Lavaud, was joined by Billy Eidi, in the premiere of Steptoe’s Sept Nocturnes for piano duet, the performance taking place in the Abbatiale Saint-Pierre at Uzerche in the Corrèze, France, on July 27th 2006. | |
| Vocal Music | |
| Over nearly thirty years Steptoe has composed an impressive list of songs - cycles for all voices with piano and sung regularly throughout the world by some of the finest performers of our time. A number of song cycles are university and conservatoire examination works and most recently the Chinese Lyrics Set 2 for countertenor and piano have seen a spate of performances namely by Derek Lee Ragin, David Allsopp and the US premiere at the University of Indianapolis by Todd Doering in April 2007. | |
| Roger Steptoe's recent radiantly-textured vocal trio, And so the stars soar high, was given it’s premiere in London in 2002 by Anya Szreter, soprano, Ruti Halvani, mezzo-soprano, Giles Chaundy, baritone, and Malcolm Miller, piano. | |
| Earlier in 2006 Steptoe was invited by Giles Swayne to make a contribution to his forthcoming collection of Carols to be published by the UK publishers, Gonzaga Music Limited. Send us Angels was available for Christmas 2007 with its premiere performance in the Pavillion Theatre, Bournemouth, as part of the 60th anniversary of the Bournemouth Schools’ Music Association. | |
| Orchestral Music | |
| Steptoe’s orchestral output has always been very small. Despite a couple of early works mainly scored for youth orchestra forces - Music for Abingdon (1975), Overture for Charterhouse (1977) and the shorter chamber orchestral work, Cheers, written to celebrate the life of Dr Allen Percival CBE in 1993 - his first purely larger-scale orchestral was written in 2002 when the Orchestre Symphonique Régional du Limousin commissioned the symphonic poem, This Side of Winter. Guy Condette conducted four performances in an all-British programme, with the first performance in the Grand Theatre, Limoges, on 19th November 2002. | |
| A Three-Tango Rhapsody for symphony orchestra, an arrangement and orchestration of three Argentinian tangos, was premiered in the New Years Concert in Brive-la-Gaillarde in January 2008 conducted by Marc Ursule. | |
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'Light'
Sinfonietta for organ and strings
This major work lasting some 25 minutes was finished in early 2006. Commissioned by the Paris-based chamber orchestra, Forum Sinfonietta, and its prinicipal conductor and artistic director, Jérôme Devaud, it was written for the Notre-Dame, Paris organist, Olivier Latry, who premiered the work in the Cathedral at Tulle in the Corrèze on 27th July 2006. The work was later recorded in Paris for a CD along with Steptoe’s Oboe Concerto on the Explora Concept label and using the main organ at Notre-Dame itself. Nora Cismondi, oboe super-soliste with the Orchestre National de France, is the soloist in the 1982 Oboe Concerto which is dedicated to the young British actor, playright and director, Sebastian Fernandez Armesto, on his Christening in the same year. |
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| Music for Tuba | |
| New interest has been shown in his brass music, especially the Concerto for tuba and strings, written in 1983 for James Gourlay who recorded the work with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia under Gavin Sutherland for Naxos in 2004. The work has attracted flattering notices in many leading international CD reviews. "Roger Steptoe's Concerto from 1983 was new to me and explores some exquisite timbres and sepia-like images in its vocalised rhetoric." Jonathan Freeman-Attwood. The Gramophone, April 2006. |  |
| The Concerto received its French premiere on April 5th 2005 by the distinguished American tubist and CNSM-Lyon professor, Mel Culbertson, with the Orchestre de Besançon Franche-Comté, conducted by Péter Csaba. The Swiss tubist, Christoph Moor, then played the Concerto with Musica Viva in Basel on April 21st having already given the work’s Australian premiere in Canberra in 2002. The Portuguese premiere was in Lisbon in April 2006 by the Lisbon Sinfonietta and Filipe Queiros conducted by Vasco Pearce de Azevedo. | |
| Meanwhile the Orquesta de Jovenes de Andalucia in Spain included the 1976 Dance Music for symphonic brass in their concerts in March 2005. The work was played again at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester in June 2005 and conducted by Jon Corry. | |
| Steptoe has enlarged the tuba repertoire with a work for two tubas and vibraphone. Dourando as trevas (Painting darkness gold) received its premiere by Sério Carolino and Anne-Jelle Visser with Klaus Schwärzler at the Zurich Hochschuler für Musik und Theater on 6th February 2006. The UK premiere was at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow, on 6th October 2006 by James Gourlay, Toshiyuki Niizuma and Philip Hague, vibraphone. | |
| November 9th 2007 saw the premiere of Steptoe’s Sonata for tuba and piano at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow. James Gourlay and Aaron Shorr (Head of Keyboard) were the soloists. This 22-minute work has been described by James Gourlay as ‘a substantial and major contribution to the modern tuba repertoire.’ | |
| 2007 HIGHLIGHTS | |
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TEXAS AND NEW YORK 2007 began with a tour of the US as pianist and composer. Five days at the University of Texas San Antonio were followed by recitals in Geneva, New York State, and Manhattan. For the UTSA he gave composition masterclasses and talks on his life and work as well as playing a programme of largely French and American music in the Monday Night Artist Recital Series. Featuring the premiere of John Scott Balentine’s specially-composed Second Piano Sonata, Benjamin Lees’ Three Preludes, Ravel’s Valses Nobles et Sentimentales and Debussy’s first book of Preludes, the recital included Henri Dutilleux’s monumental Piano Sonata of 1947 and Steptoe’s own Prelude - the US premiere of the Hommage à Claude Debussy which he wrote for his 2001 recital on Debussy’s Blüthner piano at the Musée Labenche in Brive-la-Gaillarde. He repeated the same programme for American Landmark Festivals playing in the 1892 Smith Opera House in Geneva and the historic Central Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. |
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SEND US ANGELS For Giles Swayne’s Gonzaga Music Ltd, Roger Steptoe has written a carol to words by the Reverend Stephen Holmes, Vicar of Winton in Bournemouth, UK. The carol, which was published in September 2007, received two premiere performances in late November as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the combined Bournemouth Schools Carol Festival at the Pavillion Theatre, Bournemouth, and conducted by Peter Hunt. Send us angels for unison trebles and piano will also be recorded in the composer’s own specially-arranged version with small instrumental ensemble for a DVD released at the concerts. |
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THIRD QUARTET AND WILLIAM TURNER To date Steptoe has composed 4 string quartets - the first dating from 1976 and the most recent in 2003 as part of the composer’s 50th birthday celebrations. The third, from 2002, has been taken up as a research project by the London-based Kreutzer Quartet, leader, Peter Sheppard Skaerved. In five linked movements each part takes its inspiration from a watercolour by William Turner. 'Tempo' magazine for new music described the work as, “The subtitle ‘Five pictures without titles’ refers to the inspiration of Turner watercolours; and whilst not specifically programmatic, the piece indeed evokes a Turneresque impressionism, in its varied textures and colours. There is here an originality of design, evolving out of content, the five movements thematically integrated and cyclically linked through a palindrome structure at various levels.” The project is currently being created between the Kreutzer Quartet, the Royal Academy of Music, London, and Tate Britain. The Third Quartet will have its UK premiere at the University of York in May 2008 by the same players. |
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| 2008 SO FAR | |
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USA AGAIN Roger Steptoe returned to New York and Geneva in Upstate New York in April for a further series of recitals for American Landmark Festivals. Frank Bridge’s rarely-heard 1924 Piano Sonata was played alongside music by Hindemith, Brahms and Beethoven. To honour the 50th anniversary of the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams, Steptoe’s recitals included The Lake in the Mountains and Birthday Gifts . The distinguished American jazz pianist, John F. Rangel, wrote Three Preludes specially for Steptoe’s tour. The work is dedicated to the memory of Ursula Vaughan Williams who died in October 2007. Steptoe performed in the Goethe Institute, 5th Avenue, on April 11th, and in The Smith Opera House, Geneva, on the 20th. Steptoe also gave lecture recitals at the Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, and Wells College, Aurora, near Ithaca. |
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| LIGHT | |
| The long-awaited CD, Light, came out in April 2008. Three works feature on this all-Steptoe disc - the Sinfonietta for organ and strings with Olivier Latry at the main organ of Notre-Dame, Paris, the Concerto for oboe and strings with Nora Cismondi, prinicipal oboist with the orchestre National de France, and the Seven Miniatures for piano trio played by the young,a ward-winning Paris-based Trio Magellan. |
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| Jérôme Devaud conducts the Forum Sinfonietta, Paris. The disc is on the Explora Concept label and is distributed by Intégral. | |
| THIRD QUARTET | |
| The Third Quartet was played by the Kreutzer Quartet three times in the UK in early May. For the Royal Academy of Music's Soundbox class the Kreutzers with Roger Steptoe gave an illustrated talk on the work in the RAM Museum. The work was then played in the Wiltons Music Hall in Wapping, London's latest venue - "Most memorable for us was Steptoe's quartet, by one of Peter Sheppard Skærved's early mentors at Royal Academy of M usic. Roger Steptoe's fastidious music is rarely heard hereabouts now that he lives in France. On this hearing, his quartets would certainly merit reappraisal and, possibly, recording by the Kreutzers?" (Peter Grahame Woolf - www.musicalpointers.co.uk). The Kreutzer Quartet then repeated the work at York University on May 9th as part of the University's 2008 contemporary music festival. Plans are already underway to record the work with the 2003 Fourth Quartet and the 2001 Piano Quartet, with pianist, Aaron Shorr. | |
| THE REST OF 2008, INTO 2009 AND BEYOND | |
| Steptoe returns to the States in October 2008 to take part in two special Vaughan Williams tribute concerts and playing the piano in 'On Wenlock Edge' and the 1954 Vioin Sonata with the distinguished Belgian violinist, Pierre D'Archambeau. The concerts are in Geneva and Boston. Then in April 2009 he goes back again to present a John Ireland 140th birthday tribute for American Landmark Festivals. | |
| Other major works in the pipeline include a new trumpet and organ work for Graham Ashton and Christopher Jacobson for premiere in the US National Cathedral in Washington in the 2009-10 concert series, the test piece for the 2010 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, a Piano Concerto for Aaron Shorr, a concerto for viola and chamber orchestra, and a further project with the French Ensemble Hope - namely a setting of Paul Verlaine’s poem, ‘La Lune Blanche’, for soprano and two Cristal Bashet instruments and performed by Ann-Elisabeth Petit, soprano, with Marc-Antoine Millon and Frédéric Bousquet, cristals. This work is an arrangement of Steptoe’s trio for soprano, clarinet and piano written for the young Scottish pianist, Christopher Baxter and Tenacious T’weed. | |
| PRINCIPAL WORKS INCLUDE | |
| Brass Ensemble | |
| Dance Music for symphonic brass (1976) St. Marylebone Brass Consort, Brentwood. | |
| Four Concertos | |
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Tuba and strings (1983)* James
Gourlay and Terra Nova, Neil Thomson Oboe and strings (1984)* Nigel Shore, Phoenix Chamber Orchestra, Julian Bigg Clarinet and strings (1989)* David Campbell and Guildhall String Ensemble. Cello and chamber orchestra (1991)* Alexander Baillie, London Mozart Players, Jane Glover. |
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| * all four concertos are published by Stainer & Bell, London (see link) | |
| Chamber Works | |
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String Quartet No.1 (1976)* Coull
Quartet, Purcell Room, London. Clarinet Quintet (1980)* David Campbell, Coull Quartet, Aston Centre for the Arts. Four Sonnets for brass quintet (1984)* English Brass Ensemble, Royal Academy of Music, London. String Quartet No.2 (1985)* Allegri Quartet, Aberystwyth University. Oboe Quartet (1988)* Nigel Shore, Berlin Oboe Quartet, British Council, Berlin. Piano Quartet (2002) London Piano Quartet, Great Elm, UK. String Quartet No.3 (2002) Quatuor Elysée, Saint-Robert, France. String Quartet No.4 (2003) Quatuor Elysée, Goult, France. Seven Miniatures for piano trio (2007-08)*** Trio Magellan, Explora Concept, Paris. |
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| Instrumental | |
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Two Impromptus for solo
clarinet (1978)* David Campbell, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. Study for solo guitar (1981)* Richard Hand, Exeter College, Oxford. Equinox for solo piano (1981)* Grahame Jones, Purcell Room, London. Three Pieces for viola and piano (1982)* Michael Ponder and John Alley, Rugby School. Violin Sonata No.1 (1983)* Paul Manley and Iain Ledingham, Purcell Room, London. Two Studies for bassoon and piano (1983)* Jean Owen and Hilary Punshon, Huddersfield. Piano Sonata No.2 (1988)* Roger Steptoe, British Council, Lisbon. Three Nocturnes for solo piano (1991)* Roger Steptoe, Federal Hall, New York. Prelude: La dame de Labenche for solo piano (2001)*** Roger Steptoe, Musée Labenche, Brive-la-Gaillarde, France. Clarinet Sonata (2003)*** David Campbell, Julius Drake, Erin Arts Centre, Isle of Man. Piano Sonata No.3 (2003)*** Roger Steptoe, Salle Cortot, Paris. De l’angelus du soir for four Cristal Baschet (2003-04)*** Ensemble Hope, Theatre, Brive-la-Gaillarde, France. Painting Darkness Gold for two tubas and vibraphone (2005)*** Sergio Carolino, Anne-Jelle Visser and Klaus Schwärzler, Zurich. Seven Nocturnes for piano duet (2006)*** Billy Eidi and Charles Lavaud, Abbatiale Saint-Pierre, Uzerche. Sonata for tuba and piano (2006-07)*** James Gourlay and Aaron Shorr, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow. |
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* published by Stainer & Bell
Ltd, London (see link) *** available from the composer |
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| Vocal | |
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Chinese Lyrics Set 1
for soprano and piano (1982)* Fiona Dobie and David Owen Norris, Cobham,
Surrey. Chinese Lyrics Set 2 for countertenor (or mezzo) and piano (1983)* Timothy Wilson and Hilary Punshon, Fairfield Hall, Croydon. Five Rondos for soprano, baritone and piano (1989)* Amanda Roocroft, Omar Ebrahim and Roger Steptoe, Blackheath Concert Halls. Three Sonnets to Delia (1993)* Jozik Koc and Rebecca Holt, Wigmore Hall, London. And so the stars soar high (2002)*** Anya Szreter, soprano, Ruti Halvani, mezzo-soprano, Giles Chaundy, baritone, and Malcolm Miller, piano. Send us Angels, a carol to words by Stephen Holmes (2006)*** Pavillion Theatre, Bournemouth. La Lune Blanche (2007)*** for soprano, clarinet and piano. |
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* published by Stainer & Bell
Ltd, London (see link) *** available from the composer |
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| Contacts and Links | |
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more information on the works published by Stainer & Bell please
contact Caroline Holloway (Promotions and Hire Manager) at Stainer &
Bell Ltd. Telephone 00 44 20 8343 3303 Fax 00 44 20 8343 3024 www.stainer.co.uk |
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For all other works please contact
Roger Steptoe directly: 7 rue Jean Gentet 19140 Uzerche France Telephone 00 33 (0) 55 5 73 75 99 Fax 00 33 (0) 55 5 98 80 93
E-mail : roger.steptoe@nordnet.fr
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| Other Links | |
| www.forum-sinfonietta.com
www.naxos.com/composerinfo/11897.htm www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/articles/article_rsteptoe.asp?room=Articles www.ensemble-hope.com www.davidallsopp.com/demo www.jamesgourlay.com www.gonzagamusic.co.uk* www.explora-concept.com www.americanlandmarkfestivals.com www.goethe.de/ins/us/ney/enindex.htm www.uzerche.fr www.thesmith.org www.johnrangel.com |
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| Roger Steptoe is a member of the Incorporated Society of Musicians |
www.ism.org
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