It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Delores Stevens on March 7, 2024, at the age of 94.
Pianist Delores Stevens studied with the noted Bach authority Jan Chiapusso at the University of Kansas, and upon graduation took a position teaching piano at the Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. She met her husband James there, and moved with him to Pacific Palisades, Calif., where they lived for the past 72 years. She continued to study privately at the Music Academy of the West with Ernst von Dohnányi and Joanna Graudan, and achieved early success by winning the coveted Coleman Chamber Music Competition in Pasadena, Calif.
Throughout her life she was recognized as a leading soloist, chamber musician, and music educator across the U.S., and toured throughout the world to Argentina, Australia, the Czech Republic, Japan, China, Spain, England, and Scandinavia as a soloist, and as part of the famed Montagnana Trio with cellist Caroline Worthington and clarinetist John Gates.
With the Montagnana Trio, she recorded 28 pieces of commissioned music, including pieces by Daniel Lentz, Barney Childs, and Per Norgard, and played a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. As a soloist, she gave premieres of Poul Ruders’ “Sonata No. 2,” Arne Nordheim “Listen,” and Norgard’s “Turn.” In Los Angeles, she performed regularly at the L.A. Philharmonic/Green Umbrella Series, the Ojai Festival, Monday Evening Concerts, Chamber Music in Historic Sites, the Coleman Chamber Concerts, and the Athenaeum Chamber Concerts, among others.
Her consistent support of contemporary composers, including numerous commissions for the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society and Chamber Music Palisades, led to a prestigious award from the National Association of Composers, the Presidential Award of Merit from the International Music Fraternity of Mu Phi Epsilon, and the prestigious Living Legends Award from the Young Musicians Foundation, presented to her by the legendary composer John Williams.
She served six terms as director and trustee of the Recording Academy (the Grammys) and was a founder of Grammys in the Schools.
She recorded for more than 15 labels, including Orion, Laurel, Delos, Grenadilla, and Musical Heritage, from Hindemith to Mozart. Her solo piano CD recording, “Pilgrimage,” appeared on the Dominguez Digital label, and a DVD 5.1 Surround Sound recording of the Shostakovich “Piano Quintet” on AIX Records.
The celebration of her 90th birthday in 2020 included letters of congratulations and appreciation from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, then-Sen. Kamala Harris, the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Ted Lieu, former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, and members of the California State Senate and Assembly, as well as from the Recording Academy and the Disney Channel.
She co-founded the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society in 1971 with Caroline Worthington, and continued as the sole artistic director from 2002 until 2019, performing four concerts every summer. The list of musicians from all over the country and the world who played in the series over the years is enormous, and in addition to bringing these stellar players to the Island, she also commissioned new works to be premiered as part of the series. The composers who created works premiered on the Island include Ned Rorem, Gunther Schuller, Morton Subotnick, Gernot Wolfgang, Paul Chihara, and Billy Childs.
In 1986 the Chamber Music Society began an afterschool strings program, which has continued to expand into the Island schools system, including two scholarship funds: one for private lessons for students, and another to honor the outstanding musician of the high school graduating class. This program has remained an important contribution to music education and the future of music over 34 years.
In addition to co-founding and serving as artistic director for the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society for 48 years, she was co-founder and co-artistic director of Chamber Music Palisades with flutist Susan Greenberg in Los Angeles, for 23 years. She taught young classical artists for more than 30 years in her role as director of chamber music for the Young Musicians Foundation in Los Angeles, 29 years as head of piano studies at CSU-Dominguez Hills, chair of piano performance at California Institute of the Arts, and 33 years as head of piano studies at Mount St. Mary’s University. In 1988, she was awarded a six-year Touring Solo Artist Grant by the California Arts Council.
Delores is survived by her husband of 72 years, James Stevens, daughter Victoria Stevens, son Paul Stevens, daughter-in-law Annie Stevens, and grandchildren Hannah and Mark Stevens.
In lieu of flowers, donations in her honor may be made to the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society, online at mvcms.org.
Thank you Delores.