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Personalities | Judith Weir | Contemporary | Classical

b. 1954
British composer

Born in England to Scottish parents, Weir studied privately with Tavener and at Cambridge University. Various world traditions have informed the narratives of her operas, such as A Night at the Chinese Opera (1987, a Chinese Yuan Dynasty drama), The Vanishing Bridegroom (1990, a story from the Scottish west highlands) and Miss Fortune (2011, a Sicilian folk tale), as well as the processes of melodic development in her instrumental works, such as Sketches from a Bagpiper’s Album (1984) and Mountain Airs (1988). She has written effectively for young people and amateurs (Storm, 1997; Little Tree, 2003) and her choral works, such the widely performed Christmas carol Illuminare, Jersualem (1985), have drawn favourable comparisons with Britten’s. She has fulfilled a number of US commissions: her song-cycle woman.life.song (2000) was written for Jessye Norman. In 2014 she was appointed Master of the Queen’s Musick, the first woman ever to occupy the position.

Recommended Recording:
The Welcome Arrival of Rain, Natural History, Moon and Star, etc., BBC Singers, BBC SO (cond) Martyn Brabbins (NMC)

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

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