For The Love of Teaching

Anna-Wendy Stevenson comes from a long line of musicians, tradition bearers and creative talent. Her father, Gordon Stevenson, most well-known for his exceptional workmanship as a master violin-maker, her grandfather, Ronald Stevenson, a gifted composer and violin player, and her aunt Gerda Stevenson, poet and actress, author of “Quines, a selection of poems in tribute to Scottish Women”.  It is hardly surprising then, that Anna-Wendy herself has many plaudits to her name as a player, composer, poet, and teacher.

It is the latter that I wish to turn a spotlight on. So often we can focus on the tangible achievements such as the awards, the albums, the stage performances, but having known Anna-Wendy for nearly 15 years, it is her remarkable character and exquisite gifts as an enabler of all that is good in her students. Some people say that like attracts like and if you’ve ever been taught by her or been in her presence as she seeks to bring together the many disparate elements of musical collaboration, then you will recognize that you have been touched by her talent and passion for teaching and enabling.  Her style welcomes you as your own thirst meets a drink.

I recall over a decade ago now, a time when we arranged to meet at a youth hostel in Perthshire. We hadn’t known each other too long then but we chatted and caught up over coffee, and she taught me Stan Chapman’s Jig, which I’m sure is still somewhere under my fingers. Later that day, we were driving to Perth when she tentatively asked me if I would like to listen to something she had recorded. She put on “My Edinburgh” and waited for some feedback while I listened. As my mind was treated to the full-bodied, delightful details of all that my ears could handle, she told me casually how she wrote all the parts for each of the musicians and instruments, which of the characters she knew and what the Edinburgh scene had meant to her.

My eyes leaked a little, and I knew I was listening to something special, not only because of her skill in playing and interpreting music, but because of who she was and what it must have taken to produce such delicate, sweet notes, each one carefully considered or spontaneously heard in her mind. A person of ego might have spoken incessantly of her own work, and maybe she thought it, but all I felt that day was the true joy of learning a jig from a beautiful soul who stepped with ease and grace between her own highly talented world to my own stumbling one of the adult learner, replete with bum notes and those screeches.

Since my own personal gains arising from her teaching talent, and throughout the growth of our friendship, I have also seen Anna-Wendy blossom into the highly skilled professional educator and leader she is today. I clapped (online) as she won the MG Alba Na Trads Award for Best Tutor in 2018. I listened to her exceptional talk at the University of the Highlands and Islands International Women’s Day event in 2019 and I barely recognized the now-blossoming feis tutor from years back. She owned that stage and had every woman in the room inspired by the way she wove story into music, and back to story again, as she let her career unfold in the most creative of ways. She reminded me of the university professors at my old Alma Mater, Heriot-Watt, whose breadth of talent allowed them to teach in their second language while working as active interpreters and translators in their mother tongues, teaching students, and marking essays and handling all the other aspects that must surely come with academic life. Anna Wendy was, and is, a truly creative professional, able to do and to teach with equal ability and flair.

If it weren’t for the considerable skills in her self-effacing playbook, then I’m certain others would be jealous of her abilities and talents. But the quiet way she works through each challenge to produce such beautiful work, whether it’s a student event, or degree assignment, or a house ceilidh, her love for her work shines through, and it is hard not to appreciate those talents in others, even if we might envy their position. She, of course, is too modest to even consider that someone might think her so capable, but it is my duty as her friend and student, to shine a light on her, the most beautiful of musical souls.

I still smile inwardly at the delight I took in her teaching me Stan Chapman’s, while she hid the true extent of her talents. But that is who she is. Barely a glance towards her own considerable talent and potential, and always willing to help an eager student like myself. If you ever find yourself in her class, bask in that glow.

*Ends*

You’ll find her here https://www.anna-wendy.com/ and here https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/cultural/institute-for-northern-studies/staff/anna-wendy-stevenson/