BIO
Alternative Classical // Left-Field Folk
BBC Radio 3’s award-winning Delia Stevens and three-time BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician of the Year nominee, Will Pound present an unprecedented genre-defying collaboration reimagining classical music through the living lens of folk.
Traditional melodeon and harmonica collide with a dizzying array of percussion instruments. Imaginations run riot within an extraordinary sonic landscape.
Stevens & Pound’s creative process of recomposition sees folk musician Will Pound learning scores exclusively by ear, reinterpreting classical music through the lens of traditional performance. Classically trained percussionist Delia Stevens draws on her unique sound world to help bridge the gap between complex classical structures and the fluidity of folk music. Together they transform their collective pasts into a re-imagined future.
"high-energy, rhythmically driven virtuosity"
The Guardian
"the zinging expertise of Stevens & Pound"
The Times
"This is a tour-de-force of a work and it was given a stunning performance..a first-class amalgam that delighted, inspired and entertained"
Music OMH
Stevens & Pound opened 2026 with a tour of their collaboration with award-winning writer Robert Macfarlane (Is A River Alive?, Underland, The Lost Words: Spell Songs). They made their debut at the Barbican with the Britten Sinfonia conducted by Clark Rundell to present Earth: The Silent Planet. The work is part of a double concerto with live speaker recomposing Holst's iconic Planets Suite. Stevens & Pound's additional movement with Macfarlane - Earth - was commissioned by and premiered at FolkEast Festival. They launched the concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Northern College of Music in collaboration with the youth-led activist non-profit Force of Nature in 2024.
2026 also sees Stevens & Pound release their debut album Ascending on Idiom Records. At the heart of the album is a meeting of the duo's respective thousand-year old musical worlds, drawing inspiration from the English Folk Revival of the early 20th century, when classical composers collected, transcribed, and reimagined national folk music. This debut album transforms their collective pasts into a reimagined future. Recorded at Real World, Sleeper Sounds and Gighouse Studios, the record reimagines giants from the core tenets of the classical canon including music from Holst's Planets and St Paul's Suites well as their own compositions including a collaboration with writer Robert Macfarlane.
In 2025 they released their debut singles garnering radio play and live sessions on BBC Radio 3 in Tune, BBC Radio 2 Mark Radcliffe Folk Show and BBC Radio 3 Saturday Morning with Tom Service. They have been featured in The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Times, Times Radio, Classic FM, BBC Classical Music Magazine, BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 3 In Tune.
Performance highlights include performing at some of the UK’s best arts, classical and folk festivals including Hay Festival, St. Magnus International Festival in Orkney, FolkEast, Swaledale, Ulverston, Petworth, Lichfield, Thaxted and Dunster Festivals.
2024 saw Stevens & Pound tour Wales with Sinfonia Cymru as concerto soloists, performing their reimagination of The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams in a co-curated programme called Regenerate alongside the violinist Simmy Singh.
Stevens & Pound are EarthPercent artists, committed to splitting their royalties with climate change organisations.
Delia Stevens - Percussion
From recording the percussion for The Great British Bake Off or playing hang drum with Portico Quartet in the Elbphilharmonie to performing as a Guest Artist with the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, Delia's eclectic schedule is testament to her huge curiosity as a musician.
She has presented her own BBC Radio 3 series on Music and Machines, curated and directed concerts for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, created a show called AlgoRhythms exploring AI and music as Artist in Residence at Leeds University in tandem with their science department, and played her local river as a percussion instrument with her community to highlight corporate pollution.
Delia is an Associate Artist of the RNCM where she was the winner of the Concerto Prize and Gold Medal Award and has won the Royal Over-Seas League Award twice.
Touring has taken her as a concerto soloist across Germany and Prague's Last Night of the Proms to the Royal Albert Hall as Guest Percussionist with the BBC Singers at the BBC Proms; from TedX Talks at Sage Gateshead to orchestral jams in Peckham’s Bold Tendencies Carpark; from recitals in Beijing’s Forbidden Concert Hall to the muddy fields of Cambridge Folk Festival.
Will Pound - Harmonica & Melodeon
One of the finest harmonica and melodeon players of his generation, Will Pound has pushed the boundaries working on and with a number of projects and musicians which in the past and present include Will Pound and Eddy Jay, Jenn Butterworth, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Liz Carrol, Martin Simpson, Guy Chambers, Concerto Caledonia, Robbie Williams and The Hillsborough Charity Single.
He has travelled across most of Europe and as far as Australia for his music delighting and giving audiences awe inspiring performances. He has curated two ACE-projects: A Day will Come, a collaboration with poetry and a folk song from every state of the EU and Through the Seasons: an exploration of the history of Morris Dance.
He has appeared on TV & Radio many times including appearances on BBC Breakfast, BBC2, Radio 2, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, MTV, Radio 1xtra to name a few. Will has been nominated 3 times for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Musician Of The Year Award in 2012, 2014 and 2015, has won FATEA Magazine Instrumentalist Of the Year 2013, 2014 and also was nominated for Songlines Magazine best newcomer.