Sally Beamish (born 26 August 1956, London) is a British composer of chamber, vocal, choral and orchestral music.
Beamish studied the viola at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she received lessons from Anthony Gilbert and Lennox Berkeley. She later studied in Germany with the Italian violinist Bruno Giuranna.
As a violist in the Raphael Ensemble, she recorded four discs of string sextets. However, it was as a composer that she made her mark, particularly after moving from London to Scotland. She has written a large amount of music for orchestra, including two symphonies and several concertos (for violin, viola, cello, oboe, saxophone, trumpet, percussion, flute and accordion). She has also written chamber and instrumental music, film scores, theatre music, and music for amateurs.
In September 1993 Beamish received the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for outstanding achievement in composition. In 1994 and 1995 she co-hosted the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) composers' course in Hoy with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
From 1998 to 2002 she was composer in residence with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the SCO, for whom she wrote four major works.
Beamish won a 'Creative Scotland' Award from the Scottish Arts Council which enabled her to write her oratorio for the 2001 BBC Proms - the Knotgrass elegy premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus with Sir Andrew Davis.
Future projects include concertos for the Rascher saxophone quartet, cellist Robert Cohen (Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä) and percussionist Colin Currie.
She has a series of recordings on the BIS label.
She lives in Callander, Perthshire, in Scotland and has three children.
Sally Beamish (born London, 26 August 1956) is an English composer. She has written music for orchestra, chamber music, vocal and choral music.
Sally studied the viola at the Royal Northern College of Music. Later she also studied in Germany and Italy.
Sally started her career playing the viola in a chamber group called the Raphael Ensemble. The experience of playing in small groups was important for her development as a composer. Her music often combines and contrasts solo instruments, exploring the sounds they can make.
She has written works for the Swedish and Scottish Chamber Orchestras and has had works performed at the BBC Proms. Her trumpet concerto, written for Håkan Hardenberger and the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland was performed at the Proms in 2003 with Martyn Brabbins conducting. She has also written concertos for the flute, viola, saxophone, percussion and accordion and is planning to write concertos for viola (her third), saxophone quartet and cello.
She has written a stage musical about the Highlands of Scotland. She lives in Scotland with her husband and young daughter.
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