Ian Stephenson, multi-instrumentalist, composer, musician.
Ian is a truly extraordinary young man. I was delighted to be asked to write an article about him, on the release of his latest album, 'Return from Helsinki and other tunes', in June 2025. The article was published in the Northumberland Gazette. This is a longer version.
This extraordinary, multi-instrumentalist, composer/musician, launched, in June 2025, his album 'Return from Helsinki and other tunes'. Stunning contributions from his bandmates in KAN, and Baltic Crossing, plus Kathryn Tickell, Alastair Anderson, Emily Stephenson, Dreamers Circus, Chris Stout, and many other highly regarded names from the Folk Tradition, add to the depth and range of this magnificent work.
Alongside the album, Ian has released a Tune Book, containing over 50 pieces.
Recording 'The Return to Helsinki' was made possible by launching a Kickstarter Project. I am proud to be one of the huge number of people who wanted to support, and donated to Ian's Crowdfunding campaign, which - quickly going viral - raised a remarkable £36,000 !
The Books and CDs have been posted out to supporters all over the world. Ian's work is internationally recognised. The album has already been acclaimed: “One of the instrumental folk albums of the year” Bright Young Folk - (this is a really great review by Nick Brook).
Personally, I have rarely heard a more haunting and spine-tingling tune, than the title track.
The oldest tune in the book comes from 2000 when Ian was just 17 years old and performing with '422', a band which won the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award that year.
Ian was born in Dewsbury in 1982 and grew up in Selby, North Yorkshire. The middle child of three, all of the children, like their parents, musical, and very talented. Ian's parents play violin, nyckelharpa, guitar and melodeon - and, like Ian, love folk music.
Ian went to a primary school which valued and promoted music. The whole family loved being part of local folk festivals, it was a family affair when they performed, notably at the Whitby Folk Week, and the Beverly Folk Festival
Ian has gone on to make a very successful and interesting career out of his obvious love and knowledge, of music and recording.
He began learning the ukulele aged 4, and progressed to guitar at primary school. I ask him if he had formal lessons in other instruments?
"I had piano and cello lessons from a young age, but I preferred mucking about on guitar, or electric organ, I wasn't so keen on practicing the traditional instruments, in the traditional ways".
I am interested to know which of all these instruments Ian prefers to play?
"I don't have a favourite instrument, but when composing music in a traditional sense, I do love writing for SATB (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass) choirs, with or without, organ. Otherwise, my motivation is usually to write folk tunes which other people like to play.
Ian mostly plays the guitar, melodeon, Northumbrian pipes, double bass, piano, harmonium and pipe organ.
He has always loved learning - and uses to his advantage his 'propensity for getting obsessed with things'.
This aspect of his personality has helped him become a very fine musician of many instruments, and a sensitive and interesting composer of tunes, for himself, and for others.
Many musicians include his tunes in their repertoires. 'There's no greater compliment.' Ian admits.
I asked Ian what life was like at school.
At high school I was a very distracted child, always talking in class, and counting down the days till the next folk festival or workshop. I had a lot more friends at festivals who were similarly musical and geeky, and interested in folk music too. Those friends turned into a band called 'The Pack', a large ensemble of all kinds of instruments - we had lots of fun, all self-organised, and did gigs at festivals around the country in exchange for free tickets.
Shetland, 3rd May, 2016. (Credit Photographer, Lieve Boussauw)
Whitby Folk Festival, 2018, with Ceilidh Band 422. Photo by Benjamin Potton.
University Days
in 2001, Ian was one of the first students to enrol onto what was then a new degree course in Folk and Traditional Music, at Newcastle University. This innovative and inspirational course helped Ian develop in many ways. This is from the University website: Our Folk and Traditional Music degree was the first of its kind in England. The programme focuses on the traditional music and song of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. National and international artists teach as regular and guest tutors on this degree.
Alistair Anderson founded the degree course, and Ian feels strongly that he, and other musicians from that time, have to thank Alastair for so much of their musical development.
"Alastair was always encouraging and supportive, and seemed to know what us young upstarts needed at each stage of our lives to develop our musicianship and skill-set. He became a great friend and I have so much to thank him for."
An important part of the course was the opportunity to study overseas:
From the Website: After Stage 2 you can spend a year studying abroad at one of our partner institutions, making this a four-year degree. Ian chose to study in Finland.
"Alistair again could see that this opportunity would suit me, and I spent 5 months studying:
*Composition,
* Double Bass,
* Melodeon,
* Instrument Making
*Folk Dance.
This was at the renowned Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in Finland.
How did you like studying all those things, in Finland, I asked?
"I was inspired , but also worried, to see how much harder the students there worked.
I really had to up my game! I had several hours a week one-to-one with Finland's famous composer Timo Alakotila, and it was this that got me interested in a more formal, classical approach to composing".
After University
In 2006 Ian joined forces with a friend who was also interested in recording technology. They hired a suite of rooms in the old (now demolished) Tyne Tees TV Studios on City Road in Newcastle.
Ian: "The rooms were full of old furniture stacked right up to the ceiling so the agent rented them to us for a peppercorn rent and we started a business together recording folk musicians. There were some great albums recorded in that little studio include Bella Hardy's debut album, and Andy May's 'Happy Hours'. The building was eventually condemned as a fire risk and we were chucked out, albeit after a few very happy years."
Bella Hardy's debut album, Night Visiting, was released in 2007, to fantastic critical acclaim.
Andy May Trio, a duet on the Northumbrian pipes, Ian, and Andy.
Ian had also continued composing, and co-composing pieces with Alastair Anderson. He began teaching guest lectures at the University - and was invited by Kathryn Tickell (he had been performing with Kathryn previously) to be part of project taking local folk musicians and combining them with local choirs. This project sought to create innovative new pieces based on traditional songs.
"I was lucky to be paired up with Voice of Hope, a wonderful choir led, at that time, by Simon Fidler."
Ian had great success with his 'Water of Tyne', and continued to work with the choir - writing pieces, including some which they sang in BBC Choir Of The Year - which they went on to win!
This was Ian's 'day job' during this period of his life, but he was also taking on commissions - writing for choirs, community bands, even brass bands!
He became Composer in Residence at Streetwise Opera.
Ian wrote a mini-opera which was performed by people in the North East who were homeless, or who had experienced homelessness.
Above from the Streetwise Opera website, July 2018.
Streetwise Opera is thrilled to announce its Composers in Residence for 2018-2019, who will create operatic choruses for the company's performers in five regions in England
(Photo credit Streetwise Opera)
Ian's experience of working with this amazing organisation was extremely rewarding and he is proud of his time working with this wonderful charity.
Recording
When the gigs calmed down a bit Ian started to record music again at his family home in Simpson Street in Ryton near Blaydon.
Later he got the chance to move the business into the Coquetdale Music Trust building in Thropton, an amazing converted church run by a charity. This had been the brainchild of local fiddle player, Roddy Matthews.
I asked Ian what happened next?
"From that point on the business really took off and I became pretty much a full time record producer. The space sounds wonderful and I invested heavily in equipment so that I could produce really high quality stuff.
After a few years of commuting from Ryton to Thropton, we managed to buy the shell of a house right next door to the church, and moved the family up to Thropton.
It's a great place to live, there is SO MUCH going on!"
And then this happened...
Things changed.
In 2023 Ian was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
He had been having hearing problems, obviously especially worrying for a musician. He was given an MRI scan to see what might be causing the problem.
Imagine how hard it was to receive the result; a tumour was growing. To a young man, with a wife and two young children, this was a frightening time.
I asked Ian what happened: “They operated to remove the tumour and it was found to be a grade and type that you really don't want to have”.
The most recent tune on Ian's album, 'You'll find me by the ocean' was written during his radiotherapy treatment, and refers to his intended final resting place by the sea.
After the news, Ian realised that he would not be able to work in the usual way, while he was undergoing treatment. He thought about all the tunes he had written, but not recorded. About all the tunes he had written, but not published.
Sitting on the Daft as a Brush bus, with his laptop open, he used these travel and waiting times to think through this most courageous and creative project.
“The diagnosis, in a strange way, spurred me on to live my life to the fullest, ticking off bucket list activities and setting myself the challenge of writing the book and recording the album”.
Thankfully Ian is doing well. He has been extraordinarily brave and honest, in documenting his 'health journey' publicly, on his Facebook page. Such honesty, and, often, profundity, has greatly endeared Ian to the whole community of Coquetdale.
Everyone is rooting for him, and we are all delighted with the success of his crowdfunder, to enable the release of this remarkable album.
Mark Radcliffe and Ian Stephenson
Ian: Mark Radcliffe, what a legend. Just swapped Radiotherapy stories and he mentioned his friends almost getting mauled by a robot Lawnmower in Thropton at my neighbour's house. Small world indeed! Live on Radio 2 now. Interview coming up in a bit.It was great to hear from Ian recently, when he announced: It's finally done and I'm proud of it! The crowdfunders have all had the CD for a while, they got it early! But it's now going out on digital streaming services too.
Purchase the Album
Baltic Crossing 10th March 2011, and 7th November, 2016
26th October 2016, Live at Folk for Folk, Denmark
Baltic Crossing Live on Finnish Radio 14th September 2017
Baltic Crossing, live, Baltoppen, 2019.
KAN
A quartet, Brian Finnegan (Flook), Aidan O'Rourke (Lau), Ian Stephenson, and Jim Goodwin.
KAN in 2010
Joseph Carmichael, 9 July 2024, on Facebook:
I'm lucky enough to have not just one, but TWO brilliant players holding down the low end of the album! IAN STEPHENSON (upright bass) I've been following Ian since first hearing him play with KAN, and he is easily one of my favorite musicians of all time. His work with KAN, the Andy May Trio, and Baltic Crossing in particular has been some of the most influential to my guitar playing, and I'm simply over the moon to have him on the closing track from the album, titled “Afterglow.”
Joseph Carmichael is an American musician. Read about him in the TIMES: Traditional Irish Music Education Society
Above picture, and words, From FACEBOOK Baltic Crossing, 7th November 2016
A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL THE GREAT PEOPLE WE MET DURING THE DENMARK TOUR!!! We had a wonderful tour around Denmark and we wanna thank everybody who came out to see us! Best audiences, organizers and musician colleagues! It's been so great to feel how our band has grown into something really fun and important for us, the 12 years of ongoing work with this is starting to pay back in a very exciting way. So thanks a lot to all who's supporting us in so many ways!!! We're planning to be back on tour in Denmark next time in May 2018, unless we get a specific invitation for something before that..
I hope you have enjoyed reading about Ian Stephenson - he is clearly a very well respected, and wonderful musician and composer. He plays a huge part also in the Rothbury Traditional Music Festival. I think we all need to 'watch this space' to see what Ian does next!
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