Composer of the Week: Errollyn Wallen

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

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

Composer of the Week: Errollyn Wallen: First Steps

First Steps

Errollyn Wallen

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Errollyn Wallen, First Steps

Donald Macleod speaks to Errollyn Wallen about her lifelong love of dance.

Donald Macleod chats to composer Errollyn Wallen about her lifelong love of dance, her time spent training in New York, and how she came to decide that music was her true path.

Donald Macleod speaks to Errollyn Wallen about her lifelong love of dance.

Belize-born British composer Errollyn Wallen has been called a “renaissance woman of contemporary music”. She’s a remarkably versatile and prolific composer, pianist and songwriter and one of our most in-demand musical voices today. She was the first black woman to have a piece performed at the Proms in 1998 and her music opened the 2012 Paralympic games.  She's even been performed in space, aboard Nasa’s STS115 mission.  Wallen writes in a kaleidoscopic range of styles; her music constantly crosses and re-crosses musical boundaries and it brims over with a sense of adventure and delight. All this week, Donald Macleod gets to know Errollyn as she dials into his studio from her Scottish lighthouse where she retreats to concentrate on her work.

Today, Errollyn shares stories about her other first love, dance, and talks to Donald about her time spent training in New York at the Harlem Dance Theatre. We hear how she came to decide that music was actually the right path for her but how dance remains an important presence in her life today, from writing ballets to hitting her step count targets with some kitchen disco.

Woogie Boogie
Rachel Barton-Pine, violin
Matthew Hagle, piano

Dervish
Matthew Sharp, cello
Dominic Harlan, piano

Concerto Grosso
Tai Murray, violin
Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano
Chi-chi Nwanoku, double bass
Chineke! Orchestra
Anthony Parnther, conductor

Horseplay (1st and 2nd movements)
Continuum Ensemble
Philip Headlam, conductor

In Our Lifetime
Mike Henry, baritone
Ensemble X


Produced in Cardiff by Amelia Parker

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 talks to British composer Errollyn Wallen about her life and career.

Donald Macleod talks to Errollyn Wallen - a versatile and prolific composer, pianist and songwriter and one of our most in-demand musical voices today - about her life and career.

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