Stephen Daltry : Music for Media: News

You can read my Vertigo film magazine article about composing music for film, 'The Sound of Story', at the following link.

www.vertigomagazine.org/showarticle.php?sel=bac&siz=1&id=533

Stephen teaches piano from home on a Bechstein Grand. He also teaches theory and composition, musicianship and piano-accordion. The days and times are Tuesday to Friday, 3.30 to 7.30 but he is flexible if these don't suit. Please email in the first instance:
sdaltry@ovi.com

As a piano teacher I like to think about what helped me develop as a pianist. It helped to have a grandfather who was excellent on the keys, a devotee of Schumann and Chopin, who bought me my first record of Clifford Curzon playing Schumann's 'Scenes of Childhood'. The cover was a lake at sunset: I will always remember it. I began at the age of 9 with a teacher in Carlisle, where the emphasis was on scales and grades, which I dutifully followed, passed the exams, but she was a fearsome woman so I was not unduly disappointed when she informed my mother she had to stop teaching. My next teacher, a retired vicar, imparted to me a joy about playing, he shared with me some of his compositions and got me playing in concerts, such as the Carlisle Music Festival at the City Hall. Falling in love with a girl who liked Simon Garfunkel I spent a whole weekend learning the piano arrangement of Bridge Over Troubled Water; this helped my sight-reading no end, and I was soon making regular trips to Roberts Music Shop in Carlisle, buying Debussy's 'Children's Corner' ( my grandfather had sent a record of Peter Frankl playing these exquisite, charming works) as well as Meade Lux Lewis's Honky Tonk Train Blues and manuscript paper for I had already started composing.
At Christ Church College Canterbury I was taught by the concert pianist Jean Phillips and then I studied with Dr Frank May at the Guildhall School of Part-Time Studies. At present I am studying the Chopin studies, edited by Alfred Cortot. He is very insightful and practical in mastering these great pieces. He sets exercises directly related to the harmonic material of each piece. A book that helped me was Sidney Harrison's 'The Young Person's Guide to Playing the Piano'. Also Tobias Matthay, a teacher of Clifford Curzon, made very a valuable contribution in the way he helped pianists to get rid of tension - his 'Relaxation Studies' and other teachings such as 'The Forearm Rotation Principle' are listed at www.matthay.org

The Times: 'Hooked on a history of rod and line'
A spectacular new fishing documentary casts its spell : written by
Ken Russell

"The Lost World of Mr Hardy tells an evocative story of quality and ethically based manufacturing through interviews, archive footage and a gorgeous musical score of violin and cello by Stephen Daltry — breathtaking in its simplicity, beauty and effectiveness. It perfectly amplifies a tale about delicacy, nature and the bittersweet hope that such things might survive in our brave new world."

Andy Heathcote and Heike Bachelier's feature documentary about the great Hardy fishing tackle firm is on DVD in the U.S. and UK, and on Amazon. There are a series of screenings in towns around the UK - check them out at www.trufflepigfilms.co.uk

Stephen scored the music for documentary maker Francesca Phillips' film about the whistling language in La Gomera, 'Written in the Wind". It was broadcast on April 17th on Al-Jazeera Children's Channel.

"CHARLOTTE: A ROYAL AT WAR" (or"LEIF LETZEBUERGER") - a documentary feature film for Luxembourg cinema and television was premiered on March 14th 2008 in front of the Luxembourg Royal Family at the Utopolis Cinema, Luxembourg, was screened at BAFTA on September 19th 2008 and at the European Union Film Festival, Chicago on 7th March 2009.
Stephen composed and arranged the score for the film, which was produced and directed by Ray Tostevin for Grace Productions, Yeovil.