How does a former wine waiter end up as the featured soloist in a guitar concerto at the Bermuda Festival, given that he has never attended a formal music college in his life?

If you are Stephen Crawford the answer is: through dedication, and years of study in your spare time.

His story begins in East Kilbride, Scotland, where he grew up. There, a friend who had a guitar showed him "a few things", and occasionally he would take an old guitar off the wall of the family home and pick away at it. Apparently, the young man showed sufficient interest that he received an electric guitar one Christmas, and then ground his record collection to death by repeatedly listening to the music and trying to copy what he heard. Finally, at the age of 16, he decided to take classical guitar lessons with a well-known teacher who has since become a good friend.

"I really enjoyed it, but then you get to a stage in life where you just want to hang out with your friends and have fun,'' he recalls.

"I did go to Spain for six months to further my studies, but there were too many girls and too many late nights, so I think about one note got played in six months. Looking back, it was one of the best times you could ever have."

Decades passed before his interest in the guitar was renewed. Meanwhile, he moved to London where his "great passion" for food and wine led him to become a wine waiter in a Chelsea restaurant. He was happy and enjoyed his work. He also studied wines and food, watched and learned from chefs, and in time became very knowledgeable.

Of course, like most young people Mr. Crawford wanted to travel, so when he saw an advertisement in a newspaper for a waiter at the Sonesta Hotel in Bermuda he didn't hesitate. Arriving in 1987 for the launch of Lillian's, the hotel's upscale restaurant, he worked as a wine steward. Then, during a short trip home to Scotland, he bumped into his old music teacher.

"Are you still playing guitar? " the man asked.

His former student confessed he wasn't.

"Well, you should be," the teacher said. "If you can't find a guitar teacher, find someone who understands music."

The more Mr. Crawford thought about it, the more the idea appealed, so when he returned to Bermuda he took his former teacher's advice and signed up with Graham Garton at the Bermuda Academy of Music. While still retaining his job at the hotel he studied music theory and musicianship, and his progress was such that Mr. Garton eventually suggested he begin teaching guitar part time as well. Three years later, he left the hotel to teach full time at the Academy.

When Mr. Garton left the Island and the Bermuda Academy of Music merged with the Bermuda School of Music (BSM), Mr. Crawford remained on the faculty, and has never looked back.

"I started with one student at the Academy on a part-time basis," Mr. Crawford says. "Now I have 60, and the phone is still ringing. `Do you teach adults?' ` Do you teach children?' People are in a frenzy! In fact, the school is looking for a part time guitar teacher to help out."

Despite the casual way in which this information is imparted, it is clear that Mr. Crawford is a gifted musician, yet with typical modesty he asks that his talent and achievements not be overblown.

Many classical guitarists disdain teaching other types of music, but not this quiet Scot.

"I teach electric guitar and I love it," he says. "I am not a musical snob, I love all styles of music. Good or bad, at the end of the day it is all music. You have to let students work freely with their passions."

While Mr. Crawford has spent more than seven years and countless hours mastering his instrument and its repertoire, he points out that the learning process is always ongoing.

"I was chatting with (professional guitarist) Simon Wynberg when he was here recently for Bermuda Festival performances, and he said, `Sometimes you wake up in the morning and you think you know absolutely nothing', - and he is a scholar. It is absolutely true, you never know everything. That's what is so exciting about music, there is so much to learn," he says.

Meanwhile, the teacher and performer is enormously proud of the honour which has been bestowed upon him by the Bermuda Festival and says it is a dream come true, particularly since he will be playing one of the most famous, and favourite, pieces in the classical guitar repertoire on his new, custom built instrument. Made of Brazilian rosewood, it took the renowned American guitar maker Thomas Humphrey three-and-a-half years to make.

"Getting a chance to play this concerto is a real highlight, and I am totally delighted. It isn't every day you can put together a nice orchestra and have so many people committed to playing the work," Mr. Crawford says. "It will be a beautiful celebration, not only because it's an honour to play this wonderful piece, but also I am getting a chance to play it to my daughter Louise, who will be one year old on the night. Also, my wife Sally, whom I met here, is a clarinettist in the orchestra."

Of Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo's `Concerto de Aranjuez', Mr. Crawford says it was inspired by a beautiful palace in Aranjuez which the blind composer visited.

"The opening movement is a portrait of the palace and its grandeur. Sometimes the music is very gentle and delicate, and sometimes it is very angry. It takes you through a range of emotions. There are lots of different guitar techniques in the piece which use the guitar to the full."

It will be the second concerto the guitarist has performed in Bermuda, the first being one originally written for lute which he played at St. Theresa's Cathedral in 1988. It is also his second Bermuda Festival appearance, the first being when he played the incidental music for the mediaeval play, `Mummers, Mysteries and Mayhem'. He also has a regular engagement at Horizons during the tourist season.

Looking to the future, Mr. Crawford says: "Hopefully, I can go on playing music that I enjoy, and which other people will listen to and enjoy as much as I do. There is nothing nicer than doing something you enjoy."

`An Evening of Orchestral Music' takes place at City Hall theatre tonight and tomorrow night, February 6 and 7, beginning at 8 p.m. The conductors are John York Skinner and Mark Dorrell of the Bermuda School of Music, and the orchestra will include faculty members of that school and the Menuhin Foundation, plus guest artists from Bermuda and abroad. Tim Rhodes and Conrad Roach are the soloists in Vivaldi's `Concerto for Two Trumpets and String Orchestra'. BSM teacher Janet Budden will be the soloist in Tatiana Dran's `Swan'. For tickets/further information ( 292-8572.