Philippe Quint Performs British Composer Errollyn Wallen’s Violin Concerto

The performance of the concerto features Quint with the Brevard Music Center Orchestra and Keith Lockhart

The Belize-born British composer Errollyn Wallen CBE’s first violin concerto was premiered in March 2024, featuring violinist Philippe Quint and the Calgary Philharmonic conducted by Rune Bergmann. 

The piece was once again performed this summer at the Brevard Music Center Summer Institute and Festival in July 2024 featuring Quint alongside the Brevard Music Center Orchestra and conductor Keith Lockhart at the Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium. 

Written for and dedicated to Quint, who had approached Wallen to compose the work, the three-movement violin concerto came to fruition three years after its inception.

“It has been a fascinating journey creating my first violin concerto,” Wallen told The Violin Channel. “When one composes for a virtuoso such as Philippe Quint, a world of possibilities opens up when the combination of expressivity, character and technical prowess is in one musician’s hands and available to explore. This has been a great inspiration to my musical thinking in this work.

“A notable feature of the violin concerto is the inclusion of material which is biographical,” she added. “The listener will hear in the first movement music which triggered the memory of the sound of church bells heard by Philippe as a child in the Soviet Union and, in the second movement, a lullaby, ‘Shlof Mayn Fegele’ sung to the young Philippe by his grandfather. The final movement is playful and optimistic — evoking the welcome of a new life in America. 

“I take this opportunity to extend my gratitude to Philippe Quint for discovering and championing my music and for the opportunity to collaborate with him and with all the orchestras involved in this commission, in such a fruitful and enjoyable way.”

The performance of the violin concerto at the Brevard Music Center can be viewed below:

Wallen’s contribution to contemporary classical music involves a catalog of 22 operas and a range of orchestral, chamber, and vocal compositions. Her music was featured at the opening ceremony of the 2021 Paralympic Games and Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees. 

Additionally, she has been ranked among the Top 20 most-performed living classical composers and was the first Black woman to have a work featured in the Proms. 

As a broadcaster, she has worked on documentary programs including Classical Commonwealth for BBC Radio 3, which explores the impact of colonialism on music across the Commonwealth. Her book Becoming a Composer was published in November 2023.

In 2007, Wallen was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honors, and in 2020, was honored with a CBE in the New Year Honors, for services to music. Recently, she was also appointed Master of The King’s Music.

The Brevard Music Center Summer Institute's 2025 application is now open. The Summer Season, for high school and college-age musicians, runs between early June and early August, with different dates and lengths depending on the program. To learn more, click here.