Judith Weir

Dame Judith Weir (born 11 May 1954 ) is a British composer. She served as Master of the King’s Music from 2014 to 2024. Appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, Weir was the first woman to hold this office. Early life Weir was born in Cambridge, England, to Scottish parents from Aberdeen. It was a musical household, with her father playing the trumpet and her mother the viola; the family moved house to Harrow and she began to play the oboe in her early teens. and subsequently with Robin Holloway at King’s College, Cambridge, graduating in 1976. Career The first of her works to be heard professionally was Where the Shining Trumpets Blow, given by the New Philharmonia in 1974. At the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow, Weir served as Guinness composer-in-residence from 1988 to 1991. her musical language is fairly conservative, with a “knack of making simple musical ideas appear freshly mysterious”, and, later in her career, explained that pleasure in listening and curiosity guide her choices. Her 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. She has subse