Errollyn Wallen, a composer, pianist, and singer-songwriter, has become the first Black woman to be awarded Master of the King’s Music by King Charles. Wallen, who produced compositions for Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees, follows Dame Judith Weir, the first woman to occupy the position. Queen Elizabeth II named Weir to the ten-year appointment in July 2014.
King’s music masters typically create compositions for exceptional royal occasions such as royal weddings, jubilees, and coronations. The honorary role, established during King Charles I’s reign, recognizes musicians who have contributed to the musical life of the UK and Commonwealth, according to the BBC.
“I am thrilled to accept this royal appointment,” Wallen said. “I look forward to championing music and music-making for all.”
Wallen, born in Belize in 1958, went to the UK with her parents when she was two years old. She is one of the top 20 most played classical composers today.She was then reared by her uncle and aunt in north London after her parents relocated to New York.
Growing up, Wallen enjoyed music just as much as her father. At the age of five, she began playing her father’s piano, which he had brought home after performing as a singer in northern bars. “I would go to bed as a child dreaming of the piano and found it very hard to be separated from it,” she told Lauren Laverne of BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.
After studying music at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and then a master’s degree in composition at King’s College, Cambridge, she worked in care homes to supplement her income. Wallen also worked as a session musician for heavy metal, jazz, and reggae bands.
She started Women in Music, an organization to help redress the imbalance, after wanting to be a composer but not knowing how to break into the field, which was dominated by white men. According to The Guardian, she founded Ensemble X and initially played some of her repertory music in 1990.
By this time, she had earned a name as a classical composer, being the first Black woman to have a composition performed at the BBC Proms in 1998. She composed “Principia” and “Spirit in Motion” for the London 2012 Paralympic Games opening ceremony, drawing inspiration from the participants.
Wallen, who was also the first woman to earn the Ivor Novello Award for classical music, received an MBE in 2007 and a CBE in 2021. However, after composing a new rendition of Jerusalem, a hymn performed annually at the Proms, she received “very abusive” letters, she told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs.
“The work is dedicated to the Windrush generation and also the fact that it’s little understood that in the colonies, de facto, we live with the music of England,” she said. “And so in Belize, all these hymns are our hymns, and so I’ve also put a little, added an extra sentence, mentioned that we Commonwealth people, we sing with you.”
“I hadn’t realized there was a problem, that there’s certain sacred things that no Black person must touch.”
Minority composers may face silence and rejection in the classical music community, according to analysts. In 2015, just 6% of commissioned works submitted for the British Composer Awards were by black or minority ethnic (BAME) composers.
Wallen believes that if she has helped to debunk the stereotype that composing is only for white men, “that can only be a good thing.”
According to The Guardian, Wallen, who now lives and composes in a Scottish lighthouse, has written 22 operas as well as numerous orchestral, chamber, and voice compositions.