New Classical Featured Artist – 03/27/23 – 04/09/23
In this week’s playlist, we feature British composer and violist, Sally Beamish. In her early career, Beamish performed regularly with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and the London Sinfonietta and was principal viola in the London Mozart Players and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In 1990, she moved from London to Scotland to develop her career as a composer. Her music embraces many influences – particularly jazz and Scottish traditional music. She still performs regularly as violist, pianist and narrator. In February 2012 and July 2015, Beamish was BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week.
From 2018-2020, Beamish was composer-in-residence with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields for which she wrote Partita for string quartet and Hover for oboes, horns and string orchestra which was featured at the Academy’s 60th anniversary gala concert at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in November 2019. Sally Beamish is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow, a Creative Scotland Award, and a Paul Hamlyn Award, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2018, she was awarded the Inspiration Award at the British Composer Awards in recognition of lifetime achievement and in 2020 was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. She was recently appointed as an international fellow of the Royal Swedish musical academy. Connect to Classical Music Indy Streaming’s New Classical channel to hear the music of Sally Beamish.
Image credit: Ashley Coombes
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