{"id":2617,"date":"2020-10-16T20:40:46","date_gmt":"2020-10-17T00:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/?p=2617"},"modified":"2021-02-22T15:57:49","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T20:57:49","slug":"black-composers-matter-errollyn-wallen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/parsons\/2020\/10\/black-composers-matter-errollyn-wallen\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Composers Matter: Errollyn Wallen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Errollyn Wallen<\/strong>
\nb. April 10, 1958<\/p>\n

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Errollyn Wallen was born in Belize<\/a> and moved to London with her family at the age of two. <\/p>\n

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<\/a> and went on to study music and composition at the universities of London and Cambridge. <\/p>\n

According to Grove Music Online<\/a>, “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. <\/p>\n

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

Her works Principia<\/em> and Spirit in Motion<\/em> were commissioned for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games<\/a> and their premi\u00e8re was watched by a capacity audience of 80,000 people and broadcast to a billion people around the world. <\/p>\n

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

* The Errollyn Wallen Songbook<\/a><\/em> (Score) <\/p>\n

* I Wouldn’t Normally Say: Piano Solo<\/a><\/em> (Score) <\/p>\n

* Errollyn Wallen<\/a><\/em> (Reference entry via Oxford Music Online) <\/p>\n

And as always, YouTube (see video below of Wallen performing some of her own songs), Spotify<\/a>, her official website<\/a>, and other<\/a> social<\/a> media<\/a>! <\/p>\n