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Judith Weir

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Dame Judith Weir
DBE HonFRSE
Born (1954-05-11) 11 May 1954 (age 70)
Cambridge, England, UK
Occupation
  • Composer
WorksList of compositions
21st Master of the King's Music
In office
22 July 2014 – 22 July 2024
MonarchsElizabeth II
Charles III
Preceded byPeter Maxwell Davies
Succeeded byErrollyn Wallen
Websitewww.judithweir.com

Dame Judith Weir (born 11 May 1954[1]) is a British composer. She served as Master of the King's Music from 2014 to 2024. Appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, Weir was the first woman to hold this office.[2]

Early life

Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parents from Aberdeen.[3] It was a musical household, with her father playing the trumpet and her mother the viola; the family moved house to Harrow and she began to play the oboe in her early teens.[3] She studied with John Tavener while at the North London Collegiate School[4] and subsequently with Robin Holloway at King's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1976.

Career

The first of her works to be heard professionally was Where the Shining Trumpets Blow, given by the New Philharmonia in 1974.[3] Before going to Cambridge Weir had a six-month period at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology learning about computer music and acoustics.[3] Her work Campanile "in which a concertino core derived from Bach's Nun ist das Heil is framed by two Brahmsian elegies" won the first prize in the International Festival of Youth Orchestras in Aberdeen in 1974 where the jury included Aaron Copland.[3] She won a Koussevitzky fellowship the following summer resulting in several compositions including what "she consider[ed] her true opus 1", Out of the Air. In early 1976 she won the Greater London Arts Association young musicians' composition award.[3]

From 1976 to 1979 Weir was the Composer-in-Residence with the Southern Arts Association in southern England, where she ran courses for children and adults and took part in artistic projects. She lectured at Glasgow University from 1979 to 1982, and similarly from 1983 to 1985 at Trinity College, Cambridge.[5] From 1995 to 2000, she was Artistic Director of the Spitalfields Festival in London. She held the post of Composer in Association for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 1998.

Weirs music often draws on sources from medieval history, as well as the traditional stories and music of her parents' homeland, Scotland. Although she has achieved international recognition for her orchestral and chamber works, Weir is best known for her operas and theatrical works. Her musical language is fairly conservative, with a "knack of making simple musical ideas appear freshly mysterious".[6] Her first stage work, The Black Spider, is a one-act opera that was premiered in Canterbury in 1985, loosely based on the short novel of the same name by Jeremias Gotthelf. She has subsequently written one more "micro-opera", three full-length operas, and an opera for television. In 1987, her first half-length opera, A Night at the Chinese Opera, was premiered at Kent Opera. This was followed by a further three full-length operas: The Vanishing Bridegroom (1990); Blond Eckbert (1994, commissioned by English National Opera[7]); and Miss Fortune (Achterbahn) (2011). Her opera Armida, an opera for television, was premiered on Channel Four in the United Kingdom in 2005. The work was made in co-operation with Margaret Williams.[8] Weir's commissioned works most notably include We are Shadows (1999) for Simon Rattle and woman.life.song (2000) for Jessye Norman. In January 2008, Weir was the focus of the BBC's annual composer weekend at the Barbican Centre in London. The four days of programmes ended with a first performance of her new commission, CONCRETE, a choral motet. The subject of this piece was inspired by the Barbican building itself – she describes it as 'an imaginary excavation of the Barbican Centre, burrowing through 2,500 years of historical rubble'.[9]

She was a visiting distinguished research professor in composition at Cardiff University from 2006 to 2009.

On 30 June 2014, The Guardian stated that her appointment as Master of the Queen's Music,[10] succeeding Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (whose term of office expired in March 2014), would be announced;[11] this was officially confirmed on 21 July.[12] She was appointed for a decade.[13]

The first public performance of Weir's arrangement of "God Save the Queen" was performed at the reburial of King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral on 26 March 2015. She was commissioned to compose an a cappella work for the state funeral of Elizabeth II on 19 September 2022, and wrote a setting of Psalm 42, "Like as the hart".[14]

In 2023, Weir was one of twelve composers asked to write a new piece for the coronation of Charles III and Camilla.[15] Her composition for orchestra, Brighter Visions Shine Afar, was performed before the ceremony began.[16]

Weir is a member of the Incorporated Society of Musicians.[17]

Awards and recognition

Weir was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1995 Birthday Honours for services to music.[18]

She received the Lincoln Center's Stoeger Prize in 1997, the South Bank Show music award in 2001 and the Incorporated Society of Musicians' Distinguished Musician Award in 2010.

In 2007, she was the third recipient of the Queen's Medal for Music.

In May 2015, Weir won The Ivors Classical Music Award at the Ivor Novello Awards.[19]

In 2018 she was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[20]

In 2023, she was made an Honorary Fellow of Royal Holloway, University of London.[21]

She was promoted Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to music.[22]

List of compositions

Opera and music theatre

Other compositions

  • Music for 247 Strings (1981, violin, piano)
  • Thread! (1981, narrator, chamber ensemble)
  • Scotch Minstrelsy (1982, tenor or soprano, piano)
  • The Art of Touching the Keyboard (1983, piano)
  • Missa Del Cid (1988, SAAATTTBBB choir), originally part of BBC's Sound on Film series; later used independently in concert and on stage.[26]
  • String Quartet (1990)
  • Musicians Wrestle Everywhere (1994, flute, oboe, bass clarinet, horn, trombone, piano, cello, double bass)
  • Forest (1995, orchestra)
  • Piano Concerto (1997, piano, strings)
  • Storm (1997, children's choir, SSAA choir, chamber ensemble)
  • Natural History (1998, soprano, orchestra)
  • Piano Trio (1998)
  • We Are Shadows (1999, children's choir, SATB choir, orchestra)
  • Piano Quartet (2000)
  • woman.life.song (2000, premiered by Jessye Norman at Carnegie Hall, soprano, chamber ensemble)
  • The welcome arrival of rain (2001–2002, orchestra)
  • Tiger Under the Table (2002, chamber ensemble)
  • Piano Trio Two (2003–2004)
  • Winter Song (2006, orchestra)
  • CONCRETE (2007, speaker, SATB choir, orchestra)
  • I give you the end of a golden string (2013, strings)
  • In the Land of Uz (2017, SATB choir, soprano saxophone, trumpet, tuba, organ, viola, double bass)
  • Oboe Concerto (2018, oboe, orchestra)
  • The Prelude (2018–2019, flute, violin, viola, cello)
  • The True Light (2018, SATB choir, organ) for the First World War centenary
  • By Wisdom (2018, SATB choir, organ) for the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II[27]
  • On White Meadows (2020, mezzo-soprano and piano)[28]
  • Music, Spread Thy Voice (2022, orchestra) for the 150th Anniversary of the Royal Orchestral Society
  • Like as the hart (2022, SATB choir, organ) for the state funeral of Elizabeth II.[29]*
  • Begin Afresh (2022, orchestra)
  • Brighter Visions Shine Afar (2023, orchestra) for the coronation of Charles III and Camilla

Recordings

References

Citations

  1. ^ Alan Blackwood (1991). Music of the world. Prentice-Hall. p. 218. ISBN 978-0135882375. OCLC 25465899.
  2. ^ "Queen's new composer Judith Weir hails 'boss'". heraldscotland. 22 July 2014. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Dreyer, Martin. Judith Weir, composer A talent to amuse. The Musical Times. Vol. 122, No. 1663 (Sep., 1981), pp. 593-596.
  4. ^ Morrison, Richard (18 January 2008). "The wonderful Judith Weir – With a Barbican weekend devoted to her music, the composer Judith Weir is being feted as never before". The Times & Sunday Times Archives. London: Times Newspapers. Archived from the original on 6 July 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
  5. ^ Judith Weir British composer Resources.IRCAM page on Judith Weir accessed 15 October 2024.
  6. ^ Clements, Andrew (13 March 2012). "Miss Fortune – review". The Guardian. London.
  7. ^ "Opera Composers: W". opera.stanford.edu. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  8. ^ "Judith Weir – Armida (2005) – Music Sales Classical". www.chesternovello.com. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  9. ^ "Musical Work rises from the concrete Barbican". London Evening Standard. 28 December 2007. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  10. ^ Brodeur, Michael Andor (9 September 2022). "Queen had 'immensely detailed knowledge' of music, says royal composer". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  11. ^ Booth, Robert (29 June 2014). "Judith Weir to be appointed first female master of Queen's music". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  12. ^ "Judith Weir appointed Master of the Queen's Music". www.musicsalesclassical. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  13. ^ Tilden, Imogen (3 July 2014). "Judith Weir: the female music master with royal seal of approval". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  14. ^ "The State Funeral and Committal Service for Her Majesty The Queen". The Royal Family. 15 September 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  15. ^ "Andrew Lloyd Webber piece among new coronation music". BBC News. 18 February 2023. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  16. ^ Royal Family, "New music commissions for the coronation service at Westminster Abbey", 17 April 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  17. ^ "Incorporated Society of Musicians". ISM. 4 August 2015. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  18. ^ "No. 54066". The London Gazette (1st supplement). 16 June 1995. p. 9.
  19. ^ "The Ivors 2015 Winners, Ivor Novello Awards, Judith Weir". The Ivors. BASCA. 22 May 2015. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
  20. ^ "Ms Judith Weir HonFRSE". The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  21. ^ "Royal Holloway presents Honorary Fellowships". Royal Holloway, University of London. 8 June 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  22. ^ "No. 64269". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2023. p. N9.
  23. ^ Evans, Rian (29 May 2022). "The Black Spider review – Weir's opera is ghastly gothic treat". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  24. ^ Weir, Judith. Memoirs of an Accidental Film Artist. In: A Night in at the Opera – Media representations of Opera. Edited by Jeremy Tambling. John Libbey & Company Ltd, London, 1994, p57.
  25. ^ "Search – BBC Programme Index".
  26. ^ Weir, Judith. Memoirs of an Accidental Film Artist. In: A Night in at the Opera – Media representations of Opera. Edited by Jeremy Tambling. John Libbey & Company Ltd, London, 1994, p58.
  27. ^ Brodeur, Michael Andor (15 September 2022). "Queen had 'immensely detailed knowledge' of music, says royal composer". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 December 2022.
  28. ^ Weir, Judith; Müller, Wilhelm (2023). On white meadows: for mezzo-soprano voice and piano. London: Chester Music, part of Wise Music Group. OCLC 1359415988. Composed in 2020. Commissioned by the 11th International Chamber Music Competition "Franz Schubert and Modern Music", at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.
  29. ^ Ashley, Tim (19 September 2022). "A ringing coda: the music at the Queen's funeral was both solemn and sublime". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 September 2022.

Sources

Court offices
Preceded by Master of the King's Music
2014–2024 		Succeeded by
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