Errollyn Wallen awarded honorary doctorate

Errollyn Wallen has received an honorary doctorate in music from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), where she is a visiting professor of composition. The Glasgow music college described her as ‘one of the most inspirational and influential figures in music today’, with principal Professor Jeffrey Sharkey also praising her as a ‘dynamic, creative force with a genre-spanning and illustrious career’.

The Belize-born British composer, singer-songwriter, and performer, who lives and composes in a Scottish lighthouse, is a prolific artist, with 22 operas and many orchestral, chamber and vocal pieces to her name. As at home writing pop-influenced songs as contemporary classical, her music has even been sent into space – orbiting the earth 186 times as part of Nasa’s STS-115 mission in 2006.

Wallen was the first black woman to have a piece performed at the BBC Proms, and in 2020 her reworking of Jerusalem took centre-stage at the Last Night of the Proms. That same year she was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours for her services to music.

2022 has been a busy year for Wallen, beginning with a stint as BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Week. Her latest opera The Paradis Files, based on the life of 18th-century composer and pianist Maria Theresa von Paradis, was premiered and toured in April in the UK, and Quamino’s Map, inspired by SI Martin’s novel Incomparable World, was given its first performance by Chicago Opera Theatre. She was also one of five black female musicians celebrated by artist Sonia Boyce in her award-winning installation representing Britain at this year’s Venice Biennale, titled Feeling Her Way.

In her address to the RCS students, Wallen said: ‘The life of an artist, in whatever sphere you specialise in is not a straightforward path. I am here to tell you that the road is indeed long and winding but that everything you have endured recently has added immeasurably to the tool kit you will need to survive.

‘I hope there will always be a voice in your head which says, “follow your own path”. Please promise me you will be brave and walk into the unknown with courage and joy. The world is all yours when you can meet it with humility and wonder.’ 

You can find out more about Errollyn Wallen here.