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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Judith Weir (1954-)

Composer of the Week: Judith Weir (1954-): Episode 1: New Directions

Judith Weir (1954-)

Episode 1

Episode 1: New Directions

New Directions

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Judith Weir (1954-), New Directions

Donald Macleod focuses on Weir's appointment as associate composer to the BBC Singers.

Donald Macleod focuses on Judith Weir's appointment as associate composer to the BBC Singers. And Weir discusses how a building's fabric can be captured in musical form.

This week Donald Macleod talks to Judith Weir about her life and her music. One of our most distinguished composers, in July 2014 she succeeded Sir Peter Maxwell Davies as Master of the Queen's Music. It's an honour that joins an already impressive collection of awards, which include a CBE and the Queen's Medal for Music. Born in 1954 into a musical Scottish family, Weir grew up near London. A member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Weir studied composition with John Tavener during her school holidays. More formal studies followed at Cambridge University, including composition with Robin Holloway, and at Tanglewood summer school, where she worked with Gunther Schuller. The possessor of a rich, fertile imagination, Weir draws on a wide variety of sources, notably dark fairytales, folk stories, Chinese philosophy, Indian music and culture, distilling their essence in music of luminous clarity. Her fundamental concern is to tell stories. An articulate communicator, Weir's writing about her music encapsulates the process brilliantly. In this series, Weir offers a personal insight into some of the musical projects which have occupied her since the beginning of the noughties. 

On January 1st 2015 Judith Weir took up a new position as Associate Composer to the BBC Singers. In the first of this series of five programmes, Donald Macleod discovers where this new choral direction will be leading and how a building's fabric can be captured in musical form.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod is joined by composer Judith Weir to discuss her life and work

Donald Macleod is joined by composer Judith Weir to discuss her life and work. Her music draws on a wide variety of sources: fairy tales, folk stories, Chinese philosophy and Indian music and culture

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Composer of the Week

Judith Weir (1954-)

Episode 1: New Directions

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