Stephen Wade

Philip Stephen Wade was born in Torquay, Devon, the second of three sons to a Doctor. At the age of 12 he developed an interest in classical music and began to experiment with the piano. By 13 he knew that he wanted to be a composer. By 19 he had composed and memorized, but did not write down, more than 100 compositions. He read Modern Languages at Exeter University and then taught English at a school in the South of France for a year. Upon his return from France he began to transcribe from memory the music that he'd composed throughout his teens and early twenties. By 1964, then aged 27, he had finished this task. Unfortunately Stephen then experienced the onset of a mind-block to the generation of new compositional ideas, an affliction which was to remain with him until he was 50. However, the need to express himself creatively was so strong that he taught himself to paint. For the next twenty years he channelled his considerable talents into a series of paintings of quite exceptional quality. Throughout this period music remained his burning passion, although it was something which, for the most part, he was confined to listening to, and to collecting. His early retirement/redundancy in 1991, from the International Operator services of British Telecom coincided with the lifting of his composing mind block. With creative ideas once again flowing freely, he set about composing with renewed vigour. It was at this time he discovered the possibilities of using computers to aid him in the task of composing. He found that when he improvised he was able to utilize the inbuilt memory of the computer to selectively record his more successful experiments! He invested his redundancy monies in setting up a music studio in his living room, based around a Yamaha Clavinova, an Atari computer and Steinberg's Cubase music software. He took evening classes in theory and harmony as well as computer sequencing and used his new equipment to revise and record all his earlier works onto floppy disks. He had barely completed this task when he suffered an extremely severe Stroke on the 16th May 1993. He was in a coma for three weeks and in hospital for five months. The Stroke left Stephen paralysed on his right side, unable to talk, read, write, with total cognitive memory loss and with learning difficulties. For the first several months he was unable to even sign or mime. M.R.I. scans showed that 50% of the left side of Stephen's brain died as a result of the stroke. In particular that part which controls speech. He cannot talk. His problems go beyond not being able to control his vocal cords to form words. Even after 13 years of trying, he is still unable to consistently generate sounds that can be instantly recognised as meaning 'YES' and 'NO' when heard by someone who cannot see him. Affected to a lesser degree was his aural comprehension. He has an impaired ability to communicate his thoughts. He often needs to be prompted to draw clues or asked to make alternative gestures to assist the person trying to understand him. He has lost many of the skills needed to cope safely in the world outside of the familiar confines of his home. At the time he was in hospital, his family saw no option other than to put him in a nursing home. Fortunately for him, his friend Gerald didn't agree and gave up work to become Stephen's full time carer / mentor. Together they began upon a long, still on-going, rehabilitation programme for Stephen. Starting with the basics, and with repeated teaching needed because of his impaired cognitive learning ability and his short-term memory problems, Stephen has slowly relearned the common basic skills of how to: open a door; switch on a light; dress himself; make himself a cup of tea. What he finds frustrating is that his intellect still never admits when there is a problem. It doesn't recognise that a skill has been lost until after the lack of that skill has been demonstrated by his failure to complete a task! e.g. In the early days, when asked if he knew how to open a door he would, with body language and a snort of indignation, protest "Of course I do. I'm not stupid?" But then, when asked to go ahead and open the door, he would find that he couldn't. His hand would freeze in mid-air as he stretched out towards the door handle, unsure of what action should follow in order for him to complete the task. His brain incapable of lateral thinking, of considering alternatives which might have allowed him to experiment. His mind in those early years was totally blinkered. He could perceive of no solution other than to ask for help. It was five to ten years before he even began to look for alternative ways to do things. He is still VERY slow and reluctant to try anything other than his usual way to do anything, but, if left on his own long enough now he MAY, BUT ONLY SOMETIMES, try a new approach, with one proviso, he must be 100% happy that he is not exposing himself, or the thing he is working on, to any risk or danger. Fortunately the right hemisphere of Stephen's brain was not affected at all by his stroke. His intellect, sight, hearing and musical abilities all remain completely intact. This has been a huge blessing for him because he has been able to continue to enjoy and loose himself in music, his lifelong passion as Music does not require any input from the left side of the brain. A mark of how far he has adapted to his new circumstances, despite his ongoing disabilities, came when Stephen was "INVITED" by Professor Daryl Runswick, Head of the Music Composition Department at Trinity College Of Music, Greenwich, London, to return to University to undertake a two year, Part Time, Post Graduate Personal Development Course in composition. To help him accomplish this he was accompanied as ever by his friend Gerald, variously filling the positions of; chauffeur, amanuensis, carer and friend. Gerald, sat in as note taker and two way interpreter on Stephen's, ninety minute, 'One to One' tutorials with his three Music Composition Professors and also on his, three hour long, Group Study classes. Stephen's first CD Before and After (his stroke) was put together in 2000 and consists, as the title implies, of music written both before and after his Stroke. On this CD Stephen not only composed the music but also, with the exception of the one live recording, performed all the instrumental parts. i.e. He is the; pianist, trumpet player, violin player, drummer, etc. In 1998, he was commissioned by the Drake Music Project and Leonard Cheshire Homes, to write for their respective 10th & 50th anniversaries. The three minute piece that he wrote called Scottish Gems was performed by Mr. McFall's Concert, a quartet made up of members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Their performance was recorded live in Edinburgh by "BBC Scotland", for the 2 DAYS LATER WITH JOOLS HOLLAND program. This is the one "live" track on his CD. Stephen has also recorded live music in his studio / living room, using students from The Royal College of Music, London. His most recent achievement was a public performance of his dramatic, thirty two minute long, 96-electroacoustic instrument sound Orchestral Symphony piece named simply "Sept 11". The performance raised funds for the London RIVERSIDE DISPHASIC VOLUNTEER SUPPORT GROUP and was transformed on the night into a magical 'Full Surround Sound Experience by Stephen's technical mentor, Sam Wetmore. The performance took place in Christ Church, Greenwich, on 25th Feb 2005. Laura G. W. Bush, Americas First Lady saw fit to write personally to thank both Stephen and Gerald for sending her a CD of this dramatic orchestral work. Her secretary included a note of apology for the two and a half year delay that it took for them to reply!!! This was apparently due to the huge backlog of post at the White House caused by increased mailroom security in the aftermath of Sept 11. Over many of the years since his stroke Stephen has enjoyed an annual week-long residential Music Workshop with the organization SHAREMUSIC. These courses have provided both validation and inspiration and he has never failed to come away inspired. In fact it was at one of these camps that he first met Professor Daryl Runswick mentioned above, who, in recognition of his compositional ability, encouraged him to return to University and who then championed his application! Stephen's web site 'pswade.com' lists all his compositions and provides a breakdown by instrument. So for example, if you play the 'Bandoneon' or, 'Piano' you can see what he has composed for your instrument. The plan is eventually to allow you to print out the score parts that interest you! So keep checking back as it is a work in progress! Please do contact Stephen if you would like him to compose music for you. He has undertaken several commissions where he has worked in close collaboration with virtuoso performers and groups of instrumentalists. Finally it would not be right to close this short biography without acknowledging the help and support that both Stephen and Gerald received jointly and individually over the past 13 years from many, many people. Far too many to list them all, but gratitude to them is writ large in our hearts. To name the principal players; Lawrence Glazier, Paul Chauncey, Wilma Leroy, Kay Day, Debbie Hearn, Adele Drake and her Music Project, Geoffrey Wakefield, the late Bob Turner, Hardeesh Rai and her successors within Hounslow Disability Support Team, Prof. Paul Robertson, Tony Wade, Sam Wetmore, Ron, George Bartle, Lorenzo Bassignani, Emmanuel Saverit, Prof Nigel Osborne, Prof. Daryl Runswick, Dr. Michael Swallow & all at Share Music, Peter Read & Gordon Jackson, Peter Eversden & Leigh Eduardo, Jack & Carrie Holdsworth-Jones, and of course the succession of trusted carers, many of whom came to be regarded more as friends and as part of Stephen & Gerald's extended families; Claire-Laure Badel, Ray Ford, Harriet Mooney, Lionel Abbey, Dr. Agnes August, and finally his two current agency carers; Albert Flynn and Herbert SSebagala