Errollyn Wallen
Tuesday 5 May
Acclaimed Belizean-British born composer, Errollyn Wallen, will be talking about her book Becoming a Composer, a personal journey through her challenging childhood in the UK, her path in classical and jazz music, and insights into her creative process as a prolific, multi-award-winning artist.
Well known for her works in opera, orchestral, and vocal music, as well as major events like the 2012 Paralympics, she is named as one of the world's top twenty most performed living classical composers.
SAVE THE DATE - TICKETS GO ON SALE 1 April 2026
Interviewer:
Stewart Collins
Cambridge-educated Stewart Collins is a former winner of the BAFA award for 'Outstanding Contribution to British Arts Festivals', and the UK Festival Awards ‘Headliner of the Year’ for presenting Elton John at Henley Festival in 2016. He is a writer, presenter, and former professional singer turned festival artistic director. Stewart has curated festivals in multiple centres notably, Henley Festival, of which he was director for 30 years, The Holders Season Barbados (20 years) and both Petworth Festival (15 years) and its sister, The Petworth Literary Festival, which he founded in 2012. He also founded the Stoke-on-Trent Literary Festival with Tristan Hunt and Emma Bridgewater in 2014.
Becoming a Composer: My Music, My Life
Errollyn Wallen CBE is the multi award-winning composer recently appointed as the Royal Composer, or Master of the King’s Music, a title that dates back to the early 17th century with previous incumbents having included such illustrious names as Edward Elgar.
Errollyn has enjoyed a remarkable career having been born in Belize and lived her early life in Tottenham. She is now one of the world’s most performed classical composers, her extensive output having included twenty operas, and a large catalogue of orchestral, chamber and vocal works. She composed for the opening of the London Paralympic Games in 2012, for the late Queen’s Golden and Diamond jubilees, a specially commissioned song for Glasgow’s COP26 and a re-imagining of Jerusalem for the Last Night of the Proms in 2020. Her recordings have also travelled 7.84 million kilometres in space, completing 186 orbits around the earth on NASA’s STS-115 mission.
Part memoir, part manual, her book Becoming a Composer offers an intriguing glimpse into the mind and motivation of a composer and covers aspects of Wallen’s sometimes troubled childhood and her experiences of growing up as a black composer in contemporary Britain.