Dame Judith Weir was born on 11 May 1954 and is a British composer.
21 Facts About Judith Weir
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Judith Weir served as Master of the King's Music from 2014 to 2024.
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Judith Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parents from Aberdeen.
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Judith Weir studied with John Tavener while at the North London Collegiate School and subsequently with Robin Holloway at King's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1976.
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Judith Weir won a Koussevitzky fellowship the following summer resulting in several compositions including what "she consider[ed] her true opus 1", Out of the Air.
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From 1976 to 1979 Judith Weir was the Composer-in-Residence with the Southern Arts Association in southern England, where she ran courses for children and adults and took part in artistic projects.
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Judith Weir lectured at Glasgow University from 1979 to 1982, and similarly from 1983 to 1985 at Trinity College, Cambridge.
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Judith Weir held the post of Composer in Association for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 1998.
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Judith Weir's first stage work, The Black Spider, is a one-act opera that was premiered in Canterbury in 1985, loosely based on the short novel of the same name by Jeremias Gotthelf.
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Judith Weir has subsequently written one more "micro-opera", three full-length operas, and an opera for television.
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Judith Weir's commissioned works most notably include We are Shadows for Simon Rattle and woman.
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In January 2008, Judith Weir was the focus of the BBC's annual composer weekend at the Barbican Centre in London.
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Judith Weir was a visiting distinguished research professor in composition at Cardiff University from 2006 to 2009.
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Judith Weir was commissioned to compose an a cappella work for the state funeral of Elizabeth II on 19 September 2022, and wrote a setting of Psalm 42, "Like as the hart".
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In 2023, Judith Weir was one of twelve composers asked to write a new piece for the coronation of Charles III and Camilla.
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Dame Judith Weir is President of the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain.
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Judith Weir is a member of the Incorporated Society of Musicians.
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Judith Weir was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1995 Birthday Honours for services to music.
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Judith Weir received the Lincoln Center's Stoeger Prize in 1997, the South Bank Show music award in 2001 and the Incorporated Society of Musicians' Distinguished Musician Award in 2010.
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In May 2015, Judith Weir won The Ivors Classical Music Award at the Ivor Novello Awards.
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Judith Weir was promoted Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to music.