Sydney Stevens, Water Music

WATER MUSIC  
sydneystevenspianostudio@gmail.com  

Sydney Stevens is a self-published composer and recording artist. She is an innovator whose music inspires, uplifts, and brings peace.  

From her earliest moments Stevens recalls the sounds of her mother, a classically trained professional pianist, practice at a baby grand piano that overlooked the waters of Puget Sound. With her father a jazz pianist, from a young age Stevens’ musical preferences blurred the line between genre distinctions. Whether Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, or Bill Evans, this music was united to Stevens by the common thread of the piano, and excellence in performance.  

Stevens was not the only child interested in music in her family – her two sisters both learned violin. Their instrumental combination, in tandem with Stevens’ love of poetry since her childhood, led to a natural interest in much folk and acoustic music and fond memories of playing the music of Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Carole King, and James Taylor together. No doubt these were some early influences for Stevens' piano/vocal compositions (see Cycles of Life and Footprints album). 

As Stevens grew up, her love of music matured and blossomed into the passion to make music more than just an interest. She studied composition and piano with Bill Douglas in Boulder, CO at the Naropa Institute and also attended University of York in York, England before earning a degree in Music Composition, Cum Laude at University of Redlands in Redlands, CA. After graduating, Stevens founded the Water Music label on which she has recorded and released six albums. During this time, she enrolled in graduate study and earned a degree in Music Education, which she used teaching in public schools for 15 years before opening a private studio where she taught piano to students of all ages. Currently, Sydney is a fulltime pianist/composer/vocalist and recording artist.

As a composer, Stevens has been writing since a young age and recorded her debut album, Dancers in the Rain in 1995. While Stevens’ main medium for composition is the piano, her exceptions are noteworthy. Living for a time in Eastern Oregon, Stevens met an oboe and English horn player named Mitch Iimori. Inspired by their friendship, she composed the multi-movement Seasons Suite for oboe/English horn and piano. Critically regarded after appearing on her sophomore album Seasons, the Seasons Suite was noticed by Mark Steighner, director of the Colombia Gorge Sinfonietta.  For the Sinfonietta, Stevens arranged the Seasons Suite for orchestra and woodwind soloist and the Suite was performed at a concert that highlighted the works of Oregon composers.  

As a recording artist, Stevens seeks to bridge the gap between audible and written music. In addition to releasing six albums, Stevens has steadily begun releasing the sheet music for each track and the sheet music for four complete albums – Cycles of Life (2014), Seasons (2001), and Waltz of Life (2020) and recently added her current release Footprints (2025). Footprints is Stevens sixth album, featuring Stevens on both piano and vocal. In 2020, Stevens released one of the tracks: "Winds of Change (Blue Jean Tuxedo)" as a single. The song stands as both an ideal and a call. With a musical theme evoking serenity and kindness, the album Footprints heralds a vision of the beauty of what our world can be and challenges the listeners to be the change that creates such beauty. When Sydney is not in her studio, she can be seen taking care of animals.