Judith Weir
Encyclopedia
Judith Weir CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

, (born 11 May 1954 in Cambridge, England of Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 parents) is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 composer.

Biography

Her music has been appreciated by audiences and critics alike. She trained with John Tavener
John Tavener
Sir John Tavener is a British composer, best known for such religious, minimal works as "The Whale", and "Funeral Ikos"...

 while still at school (North London Collegiate School
North London Collegiate School
North London Collegiate School is an independent day school for girls founded in 1850 in Camden Town, and now in the London Borough of Harrow.The Good Schools Guide called the school an "Academically stunning outer London school in a glorious setting which, in 2003, demonstrated its refusal to rest...

) and subsequently with Robin Holloway
Robin Holloway
Robin Greville Holloway is an English composer.-Early life:From 1952 to 1957, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral...

 at King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....

, 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 international recognition for her 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. 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
The Black Spider
The Black Spider is a novella by the Swiss writer Jeremias Gotthelf written in 1842. Set in an idyllic frame story, old legends are worked into a Christian-humanist allegory about ideas of good and evil. Though the novel is initially divided, what is originally the internal story, later spills over...

 by Jeremias Gotthelf
Jeremias Gotthelf
Albert Bitzius , Swiss novelist, best known by his pen name of Jeremias Gotthelf, was born at Murten, where his father was pastor.In 1804 the home was moved to Utzenstorf, a village in the Bernese Emmental...

. She has subsequently written one more "micro-operas", three full length operas, and an opera for television. In 1987, her first half length opera, A Night at the Chinese Opera
A Night at the Chinese Opera
A Night at the Chinese Opera is an opera by Judith Weir. Aside from an earlier opera for children, this was Weir's first full-scale opera, written on commission from the BBC for performance by Kent Opera. The work received its premiere on 8 July 1987 at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, England...

, premiered at Kent Opera
Kent Opera
Kent Opera was a British opera company in the period 1969-1989. Based in Ashford, England the Company presented its productions in several centres mainly in the southern part of England. These included The Orchard Theatre, Dartford, the Assembly Halls, Tunbridge Wells, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury,...

. This was followed by her other two full length operas The Vanishing Bridegroom
The Vanishing Bridegroom
The Vanishing Bridegroom is an opera by composer Judith Weir. Commissioned by the Glasgow District Council, the opera was premiered by the Scottish Opera as a part of the 1990 European Capital of Culture celebrations in Glasgow. The United States premiere of the opera was given by the Opera Theatre...

(1990) and Blond Eckbert
Blond Eckbert
Blond Eckbert is an opera by Scottish composer Judith Weir. The composer wrote the English-language libretto herself, basing it on the cryptic supernatural short story Der blonde Eckbert by the German Romantic writer Ludwig Tieck. Weir completed the original two act version of the opera in 1993,...

(1994), the latter commissioned by the English National Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...

. In 2005 her opera Armida, an opera for television, premiered on Channel Four in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

). The work was made in co-operation with Margaret Williams
Margaret Williams
Margaret Williams is a former municipal politician in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. She served as a councillor from 1991 to 2000, representing the city's first ward....

.

Weir's commissioned works most notably include woman.life.song (2000) for Jessye Norman
Jessye Norman
Jessye Norman is an American opera singer. Norman is a well-known contemporary opera singer and recitalist, and is one of the highest paid performers in classical music...

 and We are Shadows (1999) for Simon Rattle
Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....

.

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
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. The Orchestra's current chief executive, appointed in 1999, is Stephen Maddock...

 from 1995 to 1998. She received the Lincoln Center's Stoeger Prize in 1997 and in 2001 the South Bank Show music award.

Her husbands name was Frederick David Weir. They were married for many years, but he sadly passed away ten years into His and Judiths marriage.

According to The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

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’.

Operas

  • The Black Spider (6 March 1985, Canterbury
    Canterbury
    Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

    )
  • The Consolations of Scholarship (5 May 1985, Durham
    Durham
    Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...

    )
  • A Night at the Chinese Opera
    A Night at the Chinese Opera
    A Night at the Chinese Opera is an opera by Judith Weir. Aside from an earlier opera for children, this was Weir's first full-scale opera, written on commission from the BBC for performance by Kent Opera. The work received its premiere on 8 July 1987 at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, England...

    (8 July 1987, Cheltenham
    Cheltenham
    Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...

    )
  • The Vanishing Bridegroom (1990, Glasgow
    Glasgow
    Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

    )
  • Blond Eckbert
    Blond Eckbert
    Blond Eckbert is an opera by Scottish composer Judith Weir. The composer wrote the English-language libretto herself, basing it on the cryptic supernatural short story Der blonde Eckbert by the German Romantic writer Ludwig Tieck. Weir completed the original two act version of the opera in 1993,...

    (20 April 1994, London
    London
    London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

    )
  • Armida
    Armida (Weir)
    Armida is an opera by British composer Judith Weir. It premiered on 25 December 2005 as a television broadcast on the UK station, Channel 4 which had commissioned the work...

    (2005, television broadcast for Channel Four in the United Kingdom
    United Kingdom
    The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

    )
  • Achterbahn
    Achterbahn
    In cryptography, Achterbahn is the name of a synchronous stream cipher algorithmsubmitted to the eSTREAM Project of the eCRYPT network.In the final specification the cipher is called ACHTERBAHN-128/80,...

    (Miss Fortune), World Premiere: 21st July, 2011, Bregenzer Festspiele
    Bregenzer Festspiele
    Bregenzer Festspiele is a performing arts festival which is held every July and August in Bregenz, Austria.Founded in 1946, the festival presents a wide variety of musical and theatrical events in several venues:...

     in co-operation with the Royal Opera
    Royal Opera
    Royal Opera or Royal Opera House may refer to:* Khedivial Opera House, Cairo, Egypt; burnt down in 1971* Kungliga Operan, opera house and opera company in Sweden* Opéra Royal de Versailles, France* Opéra Royal de Wallonie, opera house in Liège, Belgium...

    , Covent Garden
    Covent Garden
    Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...

    , London; English language with German surtitles

Other key works

  • King Harald’s Saga (1979; soprano, singing eight roles)
  • Piano Concerto (1997)
  • We Are Shadows (1999; choir, orchestra)
  • woman.life.song (2000; premiered at Carnegie Hall
    Carnegie Hall
    Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

     and performed by Jessye Norman
    Jessye Norman
    Jessye Norman is an American opera singer. Norman is a well-known contemporary opera singer and recitalist, and is one of the highest paid performers in classical music...

    )
  • The welcome arrival of rain (2001; orchestra)
  • Tiger Under the Table (2002; chamber ensemble)
  • Piano Trio Two (2003-200])

Selected recordings

  • Judith Weir: Discography
  • 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
    Christopher Ventris
    Christopher Ventris is a British tenor. He is particularly known for his role as Parsifal which he performed at the Bayreuth Festival in 2008....

     (tenor), 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)
    Andrew Kennedy (tenor)
    Andrew Kennedy is an English tenor. He was a chorister at Durham Cathedral, attended Uppingham School, and then a Choral Scholar at King's College, Cambridge...

    , Ailish Tynan (soprano), Ian Burnside (piano) Signum SIGCD087

Weblinks

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