Becoming a Composer

My Music, My Life

Errollyn Wallen

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Paperback

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English

Faber & Faber
14 August 2025

Individual composers & musicians, bands & groups

I am a composer. A composer of classical music. Quite honestly I am not quite sure how that happened to a girl born in Belize and brought up in Tottenham . . . It is clear that composing found me. It crept up on me and wouldn't let me out of its grasp.

Now a leading international composer and a singer-songwriter, Errollyn Wallen is as much at home in jazz and pop as in the classical world. Part memoir, 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 the UK. It includes a collection of observations, diaries following the progress of new works and essays and seeks to shed light on the way a composer sees and hears the world.

By: Errollyn Wallen
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: Main
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm,
ISBN: 9780571370146
ISBN 10: 0571370144
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 14 August 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Errollyn Wallen is a multi-award-winning Belize-born composer. Her output includes over twenty operas and numerous orchestral, chamber and vocal works. She composed works for the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in 2012, for Queen Elizabeth II's Golden and Diamond Jubilees and a re-imagining of Parry's Jerusalem for the Last Night of the Proms. Her acclaimed Concerto Grosso was released on the NMC label in January 2020, performed by Chineke! Errollyn was awarded an MBE in 2007 and was made a CBE in 2020. She has received an Ivor Novello Award for Classical Music, a British Composer Award and a FIPA D'Or for Best Music for a Television Series.

Reviews for Becoming a Composer: My Music, My Life

""The most gifted in the crowd."" - Independent ""Unusual and important."" - Times Literary Supplement ""Captivating . . . A generous, warm-hearted book that all aspiring musicians should read."" - Opera Now ""Brilliant . . . Wallen is excellent at explaining exactly how she composes."" - Guardian ""At once comforting, inspiring and thought-provoking."" - Journal of Music