Sally Beamish

Sally Beamish was born in London. Initially a viola player, she moved from London to Scotland in 1990 to develop her career as a composer. Her music embraces many influences: particularly jazz and Scottish traditional music. The concerto form is a continuing inspiration, and she has written for many internationally renowned soloists.

Her music is performed and broadcast internationally, and since 1999 she has been championed by the BIS label, who have recorded much of her work.

Her string quartet for the Elias Quartet, 'Reed Stanzas', received its premiere at the 2011 BBC Proms, and won a Royal Philharmonic Society Award.

The concerto for Scottish harp and fiddle, Seavaigers, has enjoyed considerable success, and a CD is now available, performed by its dedicatees, Catriona McKay and Chris Stout, and the Scottish Ensemble.

In February 2012 Beamish was BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week; and this was repeated in 2015.

Branford Marsalis, James Crabb and Håkan Hardenberger are the soloists on her latest CD on the BIS label (release August 2015), featuring the RSNO and NYOS conducted by Martyn Brabbins.

‘Flodden’, written for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the battle, was premiered in September 2013 with soprano Shuna Scott Sendall, and was shortlisted for both a Royal Philharmonic Society and a British Composer Award.

The Trio Apaches have released Beamish’s ‘Seafarer Trio’, narrated by Sir Willard White, on Orchid Classics, alongside her new arrangement of Debussy’s ‘La Mer’, for piano trio.

Beamish’s ‘Spinal Chords’, one of the PRS 20x12 Olympic commissions, with text by The Times Journalist Melanie Reid, toured the UK in 2014 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and narrator Juliet Stevenson. The composer has also appeared several times as narrator.

A joint commission, ‘Equal Voices’, for the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra, with their choruses, with text by Sir Andrew Motion, was premiered at the Barbican and then in Scotland to commemorate the centenary of the start of the First World War. The conductors were Gianandrea Noseda and Rory Macdonald, with soloists Shuna Scott Sendall and Marcus Farnsworth.

Work in progress includes a full-length ballet of the Tempest for Birmingham Royal Ballet and Houston Ballet, with choreographer David Bintley, to be premiered in 2016. Also for the Shakespeare centenary, 'A Shakespeare Masque' was recently premiered at Stratford by Ex Cathedra, with text by poet Carol Ann Duffy. This was streamed live on radio and online, and is still available to view.

Her piano concerto for Ronald Brautigam, Hill Stanzas, with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino, Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre de Picardie, received its premiere early in 2016.

Forthcoming premieres include West Wind (text by P.B. Shelley), for tenor James Gilchrist and pianist Anna Tilbrook at the Wigmore Hall, and Merula Perpetua (BBC Chamber Proms) for violist Lise Berthaud and pianist David Sodubre.

Sally Beamish is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow, a Creative Scotland Award, and a Paul Hamlyn Award.

She was recently made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

With composer Alasdair Nicolson, Sally Beamish co-directs the annual St. Magnus Composers' Course in Orkney.

Her music is published by Edition Peters and by Norsk Musikforlag.