Judith Weir Judith Weir

Judith Weir CBE (born 11 May 1954) is a British composer and Master of the Queen's Music.

Biography

Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parents. She studied with Sir John Tavener whilst at school (North London Collegiate School) and subsequently with Robin Holloway at King's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1976. Her 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. 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. She received the Lincoln Center's Stoeger Prize in 1997, the South Bank Show music award in 2001 and the ISM's Distinguished Musician Award in 2010. In 2007, she was the third recipient of The Queen's Medal for Music. She was Visiting Distinguished Research Professor in Composition in Cardiff University from 2006 to 2009.

In 2005, Weir was appointed CBE for services to music. On 30 June 2014, The Guardian stated that her appointment as the Master of the Queen's Music, succeeding Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (whose term of office expired in March 2014), would be announced; this was officially confirmed on 21 July. In May 2015, Weir won The Ivors Classical Music Award at the Ivor Novello Awards.

Weir is a member of the Incorporated Society of Musicians.

Music

Weir's musical language is fairly conservative, with a "knack of making simple musical ideas appear freshly mysterious." Her first stage work, The Black Spider, was a one-act opera which 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, premiered at Kent Opera. This was followed by her other two full-length operas The Vanishing Bridegroom (1990) and Blond Eckbert (1994), the latter commissioned by the English National Opera. In 2005 her opera Armida, an opera for television, premiered on Channel Four in the United Kingdom). The work was made in co-operation with Margaret Williams. Weir's commissioned works most notably include woman.life.song (2000) for Jessye Norman and We are Shadows (1999) for Simon Rattle. 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'.

The first public performance of Weir's arrangement of the National Anthem of the UK God Save the Queen was performed at the reburial of King Richard III at Leicester Cathedral on 26 March 2015.

Operas

• The Black Spider (6 March 1985, Canterbury)
• The Consolations of Scholarship (5 May 1985, Durham)
• A Night at the Chinese Opera (8 July 1987, Cheltenham)
• The Vanishing Bridegroom (1990, Glasgow)
• Blond Eckbert (20 April 1994, London)
• Armida (2005, television broadcast for Channel Four in the United Kingdom)
• Miss Fortune (Achterbahn) (21 July 2011, Bregenzer Festspiele)

Other key works

•  (2003–2004)Piano Trio Two
• Tiger Under the Table (2002, chamber ensemble)
• The welcome arrival of rain (2001, orchestra)
• woman.life.song (2000, premiered by Jessye Norman at Carnegie Hall)
• We Are Shadows (1999, choir, orchestra)
• Piano Concerto (1997)
• King Harald's Saga (1979, soprano, singing eight roles)