Sally Beamish - House of Wonder. Sally Beamish celebrates 70 Years

Information

Composer: Sally Beamish

1. April
2. Crescent: I. Swing
3. Crescent: II. Midnight Blue
4. Crescent: III. Etude
5. Crescent: IV. Canonbury
6. Crescent: V. Hide and Seek
7. Gerropaedie
8. Night Songs: I. Wide Night
9. Lurk
10. Glanz
11. Cradle Song
12. House of Wonder
13. Night Songs: II. Tread Softly
14. Aquamarine Depths
15. Where You Are
16. Sally’s Tune
17. Prelude and Canon: Prelude
18. Prelude and Canon: Canon
19. Night Songs: III. Blues
20. FirstPeace

Sally Beamish & Rosalind Ventris, violas

Stephanie Irvine, voice & lever harp

Peter Thomson, speaker

Imogen Whitehead, trumpet

Joseph Havlat, piano

Ryan Corbett, accordion

Date: 2026

Label: Delphian Records

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To mark her seventieth birthday, composer Sally Beamish returns to the viola—the instrument that launched her performing career in the 1980s—with her album House of Wonder. The deeply autobiographical program features recent pieces Beamish wrote for herself, alongside new commissions from close collaborators and her three musical children. Evoking childhood memories, poetry, and jazz, the collection showcases a rich circle of musical friendships. Central to the recording is the expressive versatility of a 2014 viola crafted by her daughter, Stephanie Irvine, which directly inspired Beamish's profound creative homecoming to her musical roots.

Born in London in 1956, composer and viola player Sally Beamish initially performed with prominent ensembles before relocating to Scotland in 1990 to focus on composition. Her highly decorated career includes fellowships with the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Swedish Academy, an OBE, and the 2025 Walter Wilson Cobbett Medal. Renowned for her chamber music, major oratorios, and concertos written for world-class soloists, Beamish's recent works have been championed globally by premier orchestras. Having returned to performing in 2015 on a viola crafted by her daughter, she currently resides in England, actively performing and serving as Composer in Residence at the Yehudi Menuhin School.