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Talk
Margaret Bennett: Elizabeth Stewart, The Queen of the Ivories
18 November 2024
18:00
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Elizabeth Stewart (1939-2023) is regarded as one of Scotland’s most significant ‘source singers’ of the twentieth century. She was born into an Aberdeenshire gypsy-traveller family known as the Stewarts of Fetterangus. Elizabeth’s mother was a dance-band leader, who regularly toured, and in her absence, Elizabeth lived with her aunt, a singer with a huge repertoire, which Elizabeth absorbed in childhood. In listening to her mother and aunt, Elizabeth developed her own approach to singing and piano playing.
At the age of nine Elizabeth became the piano-player with her mother’s Scottish dance band, and in her teens developed a passion for classical music, jazz, boogie-woogie, rock ‘n’ roll, all of which she played by ear.
Though Elizabeth’s singing features on several recordings and her ballads have been the subject of several academic studies, there has been little attention paid to her piano playing, which is the focus of this presentation. Elizabeth has been a huge inspiration to young musicians, including Alistair Iain Paterson, who now teaches piano at RCS.
Online
Runtime: 1 hour
Price: Free
This talk will take place online via Microsoft Teams. Participants should register using the ‘Webinar Link’ button.
About the Speaker
Margaret Bennett grew up in a family of Gaelic and Scots singers and musicians and has had a lifelong interest in traditional folk culture. As a post-graduate, she studied Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland, has a PhD in Ethnology from Edinburgh University, and from 1984–96 lectured at The School of Scottish Studies. Since 1996, she has been on the part-time staff of the RCS Traditional Music Department. A prize-winning author, singer, and recipient of many awards on both sides of the Atlantic, Margaret has contributed to many projects in the arts, including collaborations with her son Martyn Bennett. Though she is said to ‘wear her scholarship lightly’ she is regarded as ‘Scotland’s foremost folklorist’. Margaret is Professor of RCS, Honorary Research and teaching-fellow of the University of St Andrews, and Honorary Professor of the Royal Scottish Academy.
