Dame Judith Weir (born 11 May 1954[1]) is a British composer. She served asMaster of the King's Music from 2014 to 2024. Appointed byQueen Elizabeth II, Weir was the first woman to hold this office.[2]
The first of her works to be heard professionally wasWhere the Shining Trumpets Blow, given by theNew Philharmonia in 1974.[3] Before going to Cambridge Weir had a six-month period at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology learning about computer music and acoustics.[3] Her workCampanile "in which a concertino core derived from Bach'sNun ist das Heil is framed by twoBrahmsian elegies" won the first prize in the International Festival of Youth Orchestras in Aberdeen in 1974 where the jury includedAaron 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 theSpitalfields Festival in London. She held the post of Composer in Association for theCity 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 theshort novel of the same name byJeremias 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 atKent Opera. This was followed by a further three full-length operas:The Vanishing Bridegroom (1990);Blond Eckbert (1994, commissioned byEnglish National Opera[7]); andMiss Fortune (Achterbahn) (2011). Her operaArmida, an opera for television, was premiered onChannel Four in the United Kingdom in 2005. The work was made in co-operation withMargaret Williams.[8] Weir's commissioned works most notably includeWe are Shadows (1999) forSimon Rattle andwoman.life.song (2000) forJessye Norman. In January 2008, Weir was the focus of the BBC's annual composer weekend at theBarbican 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 atCardiff University from 2006 to 2009.
In 2023, Weir was one of twelve composers asked to write a new piece for thecoronation of Charles III and Camilla.[15] Her composition for orchestra,Brighter Visions Shine Afar, was performed before the ceremony began.[16]
Dame Judith is President of the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain (RSM).[17]
Weir is a member of the Incorporated Society of Musicians.[18]
HEAVEN ABLAZE in His Breast (5 October 1989, Basildon), based onE.T.A. Hoffmann'sThe Sandman, which won the prize for innovative work at OperaScreen in 1991.[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, p57.
^Weir, Judith. Memoirs of an Accidental Film Artist. In:A Night in at the Opera – Media representations of Opera. Edited byJeremy Tambling. John Libbey & Company Ltd, London, 1994, p58.
^Weir, Judith; Müller, Wilhelm (2023).On white meadows: for mezzo-soprano voice and piano. London: Chester Music, part of Wise Music Group.OCLC1359415988.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.
