composers

Judith Bingham

• The Mystery of Boranup

A composer since childhood, Judith was born in Nottingham, grew up in Sheffield and studied composition (Alan Bush and Eric Fenby) and singing at the RAM (winning the Principal’s Prize in 1971), with private lessons later from Hans Keller. She won the BBC Young Composer award in 1977.

From the '70s she mixed composing with professional singing; solo, ensembles and, from 1983, full time with the BBC Singers till 1996 when composing demands left little time for performing. A highly distinctive style won commissions from the BBC Philharmonic and Scottish Symphony, Northern Sinfonia and London Symphony orchestra, the Proms, King’s College Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, Three Choirs Festival and many others. Following the success of her now legendary orchestral score Chartres, she is now one of the UK’s most frequently and internationally performed composers; her orchestral Temple at Karnak played throughout the US and Europe, her Piano Trio (a Classical Music magazine Premier of the Year 1977) with 60 performances in just two years, a festival of her work in Minneapolis and further performances in Boston, Switzerland, Stockholm, Southeast Asia and South America, with international broadcasts on the EBU and National Public Radio. She is active in all genres; opera, orchestral, choral, brass, education and chamber music.

Her string trio Fifty Shades of Green was Classical Music magazine’s Premier of the Year, 2001 and she has unique distinction as the only woman to have a work, Prague, chosen as a brass band test piece for the regional heats of the championship section of the 2003 National Championships.

She has been involved in many education projects: The Red Hot Nail, written for the LSO, has been performed more than 100 times, including performances in Louisiana, and the LSO also commissioned The Mysteries of Adad for a project at the British Museum. Inside the Mandala was a dance project commissioned by the BBC Philharmonic, and several of Bingham’s works have been used as the basis for work in schools. Other works include The Christmas Truce, inspired by a celebrated incident in the First World War, The Ivory Tree, a music-drama for soloists, chorus and ensemble, had its first complete performances in Bury St. Edmunds Cathedral in May 2005. A carol God would be born in thee was performed at the King’s College Cambridge Nine Lessons and Carols at Christmas 2004 and was released by EMI on the CD ‘On Christmas Day’. Naxos has issued a portrait CD of her choral works including Salt in the Blood and The Secret Garden which received rave reviews.