Eleanor Alberga

“Arise Athena!”—the opening work of the last night of the 2015 BBC Proms—introduced millions of listeners to the music of Eleanor Alberga. With its driving rhythms and radiant orchestral colors, it encapsulates Alberga’s vibrant and distinctive style. Born in Jamaica in 1949, Alberga began her studies as a pianist; a scholarship allowed her to travel to London and study at the Royal Academy of Music in 1970, and she has lived in the UK ever since. She served as Music Director of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre and has written many works for dancers, including Resolution (1982) and Clouds (1984). Much of her music, especially her piano work, draws on the rhythms and sounds of her native Jamaica. Her evocative setting of Roald Dahl’s Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs (1998) has been widely performed in schools—the first recording featured actors Danny DeVito, Griff Rhys Jones and Joanna Lumley as narrators. Alberga is married to the violinist Thomas Bowes, for whom she has written two violin concertos, both highly virtuosic works, but with typically atmospheric and colorful orchestral writing.