Sally Beamish: Women Make Music
70th birthday CD: Beamish as composer, violist, collaborator and mother
Born in London, Sally started composing at 4, but began her career as a viola player, while developing her compositional voice. Following the theft of her viola in 1989, she moved to Scotland, raised a family, and composed. Her contacts with performing musicians and renowned composers proved an inspirational grounding. She has an astonishing output of nearly 300 works, including many concertos, three major ballets, and a large collection of vocal and chamber music. She was awarded an OBE in 2020.
In 2014 her youngest child made a viola, and Sally began playing again after more than 20 years.
Sally will be recording her own recent viola music for the Delphian label. This is an opportunity to document her personal interpretations, not only of her own music, but of pieces written specifically for her: she has commissioned works from some of the musicians significant in her life, including her three children, who are composers in the genres of metal, pop and folk respectively.
This will provide a unique insight into her work, and also a tribute to the instrument that has enabled her to develop into a professional composer, leading her to invaluable opportunities for learning and growth, while performing the music of others.
The new viola pieces represent the start of an ongoing project which will take the instrument across boundaries into other genres, and create a collection of short viola works in combination with different instruments: a legacy for the future.