Judith Weir is one of the UK’s most distinguished and influential composers. She has written for the UK’s most prestigious orchestras, opera houses, choirs and chamber groups, and received commissions from leading musical institutions around the world. She has been visiting professor of composition at Princeton and Harvard Universities, and from this year becomes Associate Composer with the BBC Singers. Since 2014 she has served as Master of the Queen’s Music – the musical equivalent of Poet Laureate – a position formerly occupied by composers including Edward Elgar, Arnold Bax and Peter Maxwell Davies.
Weir’s music is renowned for its lyricism, clarity of thought, and taut theatricality. She has been praised by The Guardian for a musical idiom ‘that's full of expressive subtlety and never anything less than richly communicative’. Throughout her career she has been committed to supporting grassroots and amateur musical organisations, and she has declared her intention to use her royal appointment as an opportunity to campaign for greater support for music education in schools.
Her visit to Nottingham’s Department of Music will include one-to-one tutorial sessions with undergraduate and postgraduate student composers, and a public discussion about her music with Dr David Beard (University of Cardiff), who is currently writing a substantial book on the composer.
The public discussion will take place at 4.30pm in the Arts Centre Lecture Theatre. Everyone welcome. No booking required.