Judith Weir
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Judith Weir CBE, (born 11 May 1954 in Cambridge, England of Scottish parents), is a British composer currently resident in London.
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[edit] Biography
Judith Weir’s music has achieved considerable popularity with audiences and critics alike. She trained with John Tavener while still at school and subsequently with Robin Holloway at King's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1976. Her music is characterised by a distinctive textural clarity and a lucid but idiosyncratic harmonic idiom. Often drawing on sources from medieval history, as well as the traditional stories and music of her native Scotland, she is best known for her operas and theatre works, although she has also achieved considerable international renown for her extensive catalogue of orchestral and chamber works.
Weir's musical language is fairly conservative in its mechanics, but her ear for sonority and effect, and ability to make simple ideas sound fresh, makes her work free of modern-music clichés, while at the same time being interesting, approachable and communicative. Her operatic musical writing is sometimes compared to Britten's. As well as some "micro-operas", she has composed the full-length operas A Night at the Chinese Opera, The Vanishing Bridegroom, Blond Eckbert, and recently, in co-operation with Margaret Williams, Armida, an opera for television.
Commissioned works most notably include woman.life.song for Jessye Norman and We are Shadows for Simon Rattle.
From 1995 to 2000, she was the 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. In 1997 she received the Lincoln Center's Stoeger Prize.
According to The Independent newspaper, "Judith Weir has brought new hope to those who thought modern music could never be tuneful and original".
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’.
[edit] Career highlights
- 1987 - premiere of A Night at the Chinese Opera by Kent Opera.
- 1995-8 - Fairburn Composer in Association, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
- 1995-2000 - Artistic Director, Spitalfields Festival, London.
- 2000 - premiere of woman.life.song at Carnegie Hall, commissioned by Jessye Norman.
- 2001 - South Bank Show music award.
- 2005 - premiere broadcast of Armida, opera for Channel Four Television.
[edit] Key works
- King Harald’s Saga (1979; soprano, singing eight roles)
- A Night at the Chinese Opera (1987; opera)
- Blond Eckbert (1994; opera)
- We Are Shadows (1999; choir, orchestra)
- The welcome arrival of rain (2001; orchestra)
- Tiger Under the Table (2002; chamber ensemble)
- Piano Trio Two (2003-4)
[edit] Selected recordings
- A Night at the Chinese Opera - NMC D060
- King Harald’s Saga - Cala CACD88040
- Piano Concerto; Distance and Enchantment; various other chamber works - NMC D090
- Blond Eckbert Nicholas Folwell (baritone), Blond Eckbert; Anne-Marie Owens (mezzo soprano), Berthe; Christopher Ventris (baritone), Walther / Hugo / An Old Woman; Nerys Jones (soprano), A bird; Chorus and Orchestra of English National Opera; Siân Edwards (conductor) Collins Classics: CD14612 / NMC: NMC D106
- On Buying a Horse: The songs of Judith Weir On Buying a Horse; Ox Mountain Was Covered by Trees; Songs from the Exotic; Scotch Minstrelsy; The Voice of Desire; A Spanish Liederbooklet; King Harald's Saga; Ständchen. Susan Bickley (mezzo soprano), Andrew Kennedy (tenor), Ailish Tynan (soprano), Ian Burnside (piano) Signum SIGCD087
