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30 August 2024

King's alumna Errollyn Wallen appointed Master of the King's Music

Errollyn Wallen CBE, who studied composition at King’s, is the first Black woman to become Master of the King’s Music.

Errollyn Wallen performing at Celebrating Nelson Mandela: His Letters, His Legacy event
In 2018, Errollyn Wallen CBE joined English PEN to celebrate the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth. Photo credit: George Torode / English PEN via Flickr

On 24 August, His Majesty The King appointed Errollyn Wallen CBE as Master of the King’s Music in the first appointment to this role of his reign.

I am thrilled to accept this royal appointment. It will be a privilege and a great honour to serve His Majesty The King, the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. I look forward to championing music and music-making for all.

Errolyn Wallen CBE in her statement to Buckingham Palace

Master of the King’s Music is an honorary appointment given to ‘a musician of distinction who has added to the musical life of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.’ It was created during the reign of King Charles I.

As Master of the King’s Music, Errollyn Wallen succeeds Dame Judith Weir DBE, the first woman to hold the post appointed by Queen Elizabeth II in 2014.

While the post does not have set duties, the Master will often compose pieces for special royal occasions, such as coronations, jubilees, anniversaries and weddings, and advise the Sovereign in musical matters.

Errollyn Wallen is an award-winning Belize-born British composer and singer-songwriter. She studied music at Goldsmiths in 1981, composition at King’s in 1983, and received an MPhil at King’s College, Cambridge. Errollyn Wallen is the first black woman to have a work featured in the BBC Proms and the first woman to receive an Ivor Novello award for Classical Music. She composed pieces for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympic Games, for Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees, and the COP26 climate change summit. For her services to music, Errollyn Wallen was awarded an MBE in 2007, and a CBE in 2020.