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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 2: Writing for the Stage

Judith Weir (1954-)

Episode 2

Episode 2: Writing for the Stage

Writing for the Stage

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Judith Weir (1954-), Writing for the Stage

Judith Weir talks to Donald Macleod about the challenges of writing for the stage.

Judith Weir talks to Donald Macleod about the challenges of writing for the stage, focusing on the works A Night at the Chinese Opera, Blond Eckbert and Miss Fortune.

Judith Weir talks about the challenges of writing for the stage, including "A Night at the Chinese Opera", "Blond Eckbert" and her most recent opera "Miss Fortune".

One of our most distinguished composers, in July 2014 Judith Weir 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. 

Today Judith Weir joins Donald Macleod to discuss her fascination with storytelling, in particular for the theatre. After dipping her toe into operatic waters in her mid-twenties, with "King Harald's Saga", a small-scale treatment of an epic story, "A Night at the Chinese Opera" brought Weir to wider public attention in 1987. Since then she has produced a succession of operas, each of them exploring different musical and dramatic ideas.

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 2: Writing for the Stage

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