Bernard Stevens

Bernard (George) Stevens (2 March 1916 – 6 January 1983) was a British composer who first became known to the wider public when he won a newspaper composition prize for a ‘Victory Symphony’ post-war in 1946. The broader success was not sustained, but Stevens went on to become a respected composer and teacher at the Royal College of Music, using traditional forms for his compositions while extending his essentially tonal harmonic language towards serialism. Early career Born in Stamford Hill, London, Stevens grew up in Essex, and received his first musical education at Southend High School, where his teacher was Arthur Hutchings. Called up for war service in 1940, he was rejected for a combat role due to his poor eyesight, so he served in the Royal Army Pay Corps. While there, he composed his Piano Trio and his Violin Sonata, Op. 1, written for his wife Bertha, a violin teacher whom he married in 1941. The sonata attracted the attention of Max Rostal, who commissioned a Violin Concerto, which Stevens also wrote during his army service. In 1946 his First Symphony, entitled Symphony of Liberation, won first prize in a competition sponsored by the Daily Express newspaper for a ‘Victory