Errollyn Wallen

Errollyn Wallen (born 10 April 1958) is a Belize-born British composer and musician, who moved as a child with her family to London, England. Wallen was appointed Master of the King’s Music in 2024 by King Charles III, in his first appointment to the post. She is the first Black person to serve in the position, having in 1998 been the first Black woman to have a work featured in the Proms. Life Errollyn Wallen moved to London, England, from Belize with her family when she was two years old. While her parents moved to New York in the United States, she and her three siblings (one of whom is the trumpeter Byron Wallen) were brought up by an aunt and uncle and she was educated at a boarding school. She credits her interest in poetry and music to her uncle, whom she described in an interview as “Victorian” and responsible for her taking lessons in piano. Before studying music, she trained as a dancer at the Maureen Lyons School of Dance and the Urdang Academy, both in London. She moved to New York City to train further at the Dance Theatre of Harlem (1976–78) but later abandoned her training, turned to music composition and returned to the United Kingdom. Wallen has stated that she had