Sally Beamish composer

SALLY BEAMISH OBE, FRSE

Sally Beamish was born in London. She began her career as a viola player with the Raphael Ensemble, Academy of St Martins and London Sinfonietta, before moving to Scotland in 1990 to focus on composition. She was appointed a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2015, and of the Royal Swedish Academy in 2022. In 2018 she won the Award for Inspiration at the British Composer Awards, and in 2020 was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours.

She has written three major oratorios. Knotgrass Elegy (text by Donald Goodbrand Saunders) was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and chorus in the BBC Proms 2001, and has recently been named in BBC Music Magazine as one of the top 6 oratorios of the 20th and 21st century. Equal Voices (text by Sir Andrew Motion) was premiered by the LSO with Gianandrea Noseda in 2014. The Judas Passion (text by David Harsent) was commissioned by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and premiered in the UK and USA in 2018.

She is known for her many concertos for internationally-renowned soloists, including Branford Marsalis, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Håkan Hardenberger, Steven Isserlis and Tabea Zimmermann. Her harp concerto, Hive, was premiered at the BBC Proms in 2022, by Catrin Finch, with BBCNOW conducted by Ariane Matiakh, and shortlisted for a South Bank Sky Arts Award.

Her recent concerto, Distans, for violinist Janine Jansen and clarinettist Martin Fröst, was co-commissioned by the Concertgebouw, London Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony (who gave the premiere in 2021) and Oslo Philharmonic. It received its Dutch premiere in Amsterdam with the Concertgebouw conducted by Klaus Mäkelä in April 2023, and the London premiere at the Barbican will be in June 2024, with the LSO conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.​