composers

Judith Weir

• Arise! arise! you slumbering sleepers

Judith Weir is a British composer who studied composition,
whilst at school in London, with John Tavener, and, at
Cambridge University, with Robin Holloway. She is the
holder of a Critics' Circle Award (1994), a CBE (1995),
and the Lincoln Center's Stoeger Prize (1997), and in
autumn 1999 became the inaugural holder of the Hambro
Visiting Professorship in Opera Studies at Oxford University.
From 1995-98 she held the post of Fairbairn Composer in
Association with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

From the early 1980s, Judith Weir spent ten years working
predominantly in opera and music theatre, and her three
full length operas A Night at the Chinese Opera,
The Vanishing Bridegroom, and Blond Eckbert
have all been televised, and performed in Britain and
the US. More recently Judith has concentrated on chamber
music and on pieces of all sizes for the musicians of
the CBSO. The creation of music which actively involves
a wide musical community has been a particular priority
for her and she has spent a considerable amount of time
working with amateur and student musicians.

Her works have
been performed and commissioned by, amongst others, the
Boston Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony
Orchestra, the Schubert Ensemble, the Chamber Music Society
of Lincoln Center, Sir Simon Rattle, Dawn Upshaw, Jessye
Norman and the BBC Proms.Email Chester Music