Errollyn Wallen
b. April 10, 1958

Errollyn Wallen was born in Belize and moved to London with her family at the age of two.

She trained as a dancer at the Maureen Lyons School of Dancing and the Urdang Academy before taking dance classes at the Dance Theater of Harlem and went on to study music and composition at the universities of London and Cambridge.

According to Grove Music Online, “Wallen draws inspiration from a great diversity of sources in her music. It is above all characterized by a deeply expressive lyricism … and a delight in vibrant dance rhythms …” Her work is also influenced by avant-garde classical music as well as popular songwriting and includes operas, chamber music, and choral music as well as orchestral music.

In 1998, she was the first Black female composer to have an orchestral work – her Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra – presented at the BBC Proms. In 2020, she was commissioned to create a new version of “Jerusalem” (which is considered sort of a standby British national anthem) for the Last Night of the Proms.

Her works Principia and Spirit in Motion were commissioned for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games and their première was watched by a capacity audience of 80,000 people and broadcast to a billion people around the world.

If you’d like to learn more about her, here are some works by Wallen from the Music Library’s collection:

* The Errollyn Wallen Songbook (Score)

* I Wouldn’t Normally Say: Piano Solo (Score)

* Errollyn Wallen (Reference entry via Oxford Music Online)

And as always, YouTube (see video below of Wallen performing some of her own songs), Spotify, her official website, and other social media!