Judith Weir to be appointed first female master of Queen's music

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jun/29/judith-weir-female-master-queens-music

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Buckingham Palace is set to appoint the first ever woman as master of the Queen's music. Judith Weir, a 60-year-old Scottish-born composer of several successful operas, will be announced this month as the successor to Peter Maxwell-Davies. It has yet to be decided if she will use the title of master or mistress.

Weir has been the resident composer with the City of Birmingham symphony orchestra and has also written music for the Boston Symphony and BBC Symphony orchestras. Her operas have taken Icelandic sagas, Chinese Yuan Dynasty drama and German Romanticism as their themes.

The role is described by Buckingham Palace as "the musical equivalent of poet laureate" and comes with no fixed duties, "although the master may choose to produce compositions to mark royal or state occasions if he or she wishes to do so". Edward Elgar had the role under George V and wrote a "nursery suite" for Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret in 1931.

"An announcement will be made in the coming weeks," the Queen's spokeswoman said.