Arts & Entertainment

Palisadian to Receive Award by Young Musicians Foundation

Pianist and co-founder of Chamber Music Palisades, Delores Stevens, who's helped thousands of young musicians, receives the "Living the Legacy Award" on Feb. 9.

Longtime Pacific Palisades resident, pianist Delores Stevens, will receive the Young Musicians Foundation’s (YMF) coveted "Living the Legacy Award" in ceremonies at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the Los Angeles Music Center on Saturday, Feb. 9.

The award will be presented by internationally acclaimed composer William Kraft, a colleague and close friend of Stevens.

"Delores Stevens is now in her twenty-sixth year of serving the YMF as director of chamber music programs and I would have difficulty coming up with an accurate number of young musicians who have been helped by her efforts, but the total would be in the thousands," said Julia Gaskill, YMF Executive Director.

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For Palisades residents, Stevens is better known as the co-founder and co-artistic director of the popular music series Chamber Music Palisades, now in its 16th year.

“Together with her partner, flutist Susan Greenberg, she has established a tradition of presenting great music performed by superb artists right here in our own Westside community," supporter Tanya Evtuhov.

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Stevens has been a resident of the Palisades since 1954 and was also director of piano studies at California State/Dominguez Hills for 20 years, director of chamber music at Mount St Mary's College for 30 years and co-founder and current artistic director of the Martha's Vineyard Chamber Music Society, now in its 43rd season.

Stevens served six terms as director and trustee of The Recording Academy, producers of the Grammy Awards, and has completed recordings for 18 different classical music labels.

At the keyboard, Stevens concertized for 10 years throughout the U.S. and Europe as a member of the Montagnana Trio. After leaving the trio, her career took her to concert halls in Japan, China, Australia, Argentina and the Czech Republic as well as throughout the U.S.

A native of Kansas, she graduated cum laude from the School of Music at the University of Kansas and accepted a position on the music faculty at The Punahou School in Hawaii.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, she played violin in the Honolulu Symphony and became director of music for the Honolulu Light Opera Association. Stevens also met her future husband, Jim, who was stationed at Hickam Air Force Base. Their daughter, Dr. Victoria Stevens, is a psychoanalyst based in Santa Monica and son Paul is Associate Dean of the School of Music at the University of Kansas.

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