Debbie Wiseman,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(born 10 May 1963) is a British composer for film and television, known also as a conductor and a radio and television presenter.

Biography

Wiseman was born in London. She studied at

Trinity College of Music Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music and dance conservatoire based in London, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. The conservatoire has ...

Junior Department, and then piano and composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama studying piano with James Gibb, and composition with Buxton Orr. Wiseman is a Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music. In 2008 she composed ''Different Voices'' which was premiered by the

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, that performs and produces primarily classic works. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable ...

as part of their 60th birthday celebrations, and the work is now frequently performed. In 2004 she was awarded an MBE in the

2004 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2004 were appointments by some of the Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrations ...

List, was awarded the OBE in the

2018 Queen's Birthday Honours The 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as p ...

List and has been awarded Honorary Fellowships of Trinity College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Wiseman was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Music at the University of Sussex in 2015. Wiseman was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Music in 2020.

Credits

Overview

Wiseman's film music credits include '' Tom and Viv'' (Nominated for two Academy Awards and the

Alexander Korda Award Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

for Outstanding British Film, 1994); '' Haunted''; '' Wilde'' (Nominated for Best Original Film Score, Ivor Novello Awards, 1997); '' Tom's Midnight Garden''; '' The Guilty''; '' Before You Go''; '' Arsène Lupin'' (Winner of Best Score for a Foreign language film and nominated for Score of the Year, Movie Music UK Awards, 2005); '' Flood'' (Nominated for Best Score for a Horror/Thriller, IFMCA Awards, 2007); and '' Lesbian Vampire Killers'' (Nominated for Best Score for a Comedy, IFMCA Awards, 2009). Amongst her television music credits are '' Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators'' (2018); ''

Dickensian Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

'' (2015); '' Wolf Hall'' (2015); ''A Poet in New York'' (2013); '' The Whale'' (2013); ''

Lost Christmas ''Lost Christmas'' is a 2011 British drama written by David Logan and John Hay and directed by John Hay. It stars Eddie Izzard, Jason Flemyng and Larry Mills. The BBC film, set in Manchester over two Christmases, shows a group of people who are ...

'' (Winner of Best Kids TV Movie / Mini-series,

International Emmy Awards The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based International Academy of Television Arts and Sci ...

, 2013); '' The Passion''; ''

Jekyll Jekyll may refer to: Entertainment Film * ''The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll'', a 1960 horror film * ''Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo'', a 1972 Spanish horror film * ''Jekyll'', a 2007 horror film Television * ''Jekyll'' (TV series), a 2007 BBC televisi ...

''; '' The Promise'' (Nominated for Best Drama Serial,

BAFTA Awards The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cere ...

, 2011); '' He Knew He Was Right''; '' Warriors'' (Best Original Score ( RTS Awards, 2000), Winner of Best Drama ( The South Bank Show Awards, 2000) & Winner of Best Drama Serial (

, 2000)); ''

Father Brown Father Brown is a fictional Roman Catholic priest and amateur detective who is featured in 53 short stories published between 1910 and 1936 written by English author G. K. Chesterton. Father Brown solves mysteries and crimes using his intuiti ...

''; '' WPC 56''; ''

The Coroner ''The Coroner'' is a BBC Birmingham drama series starring Claire Goose as Jane Kennedy, a coroner based in a fictional South Devon coastal town. Matt Bardock stars as Detective Sergeant Davey Higgins. On 2 March 2017, the BBC announced that t ...

'': ''

Land Girls Land Girls or variants may refer to: *Women's Land Army (World War II) *Women's Land Army (World War I) *''The Land Girls ''The Land Girls'' is a 1998 film directed by David Leland and starring Catherine McCormack, Rachel Weisz, Anna Friel, Ste ...

'' (Winner of

Broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

Award, 2010); ''

Joanna Lumley's Nile Joanna is a feminine given name deriving from from he, יוֹחָנָה, translit=Yôḥānāh, lit=God is gracious. Variants in English include Joan, Joann, Joanne, and Johanna. Other forms of the name in English are Jan, Jane, Janet, Janice, ...

''; '' Fry's Planet Word''; '' Stephen Fry in America''; ''

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...

'' (Nominated for Best Single Drama,

, 2002); '' The Project''; ''

Judge John Deed ''Judge John Deed'' is a British legal drama television series produced by the BBC in association with One-Eyed Dog for BBC One. It was created by G.F. Newman and stars Martin Shaw as Mr Justice Deed, a High Court of Justice, High Court judge wh ...

''; ''

Feather Boy ''Feather boy'' is a novel by Brighton-based author Nicky Singer; it was first published in 2002 by HarperCollins, under the Collins imprint and reissued under the Essential Modern Classics imprint in 2010. A TV adaptation was created by the BB ...

'' (Best Children's Drama,

, 2004); '' The Inspector Lynley Mysteries''; '' Michael Palin's New Europe'' ("Wild East" & "Baltic Summer"); '' The Andrew Marr Show''; '' Stig of the Dump'' (

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

Winner, 2002).

2000s

Her album ''Wilde Stories'' was nominated for a Grammy Award and was used on a set of animated films made in 2003 for Channel 4. Wiseman conducted the National Symphony Orchestra playing the music live to accompany screenings in Birmingham and London of two of those films, ''The Selfish Giant'' and ''The Nightingale and the Rose''. In 2007 she was awarded the Gold Badge of Merit by the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters. In 2008 she composed and conducted the CD ''Different Voices'' with the

, with narration by Stephen Fry and solo vocals performed by Hayley Westenra, The lyrics are written by Don Black.

2010s

In the Classic FM Top 100 2010 Movie Music Chart, Wiseman's score for ''Wilde'' was voted in at number 12 by the station's listeners. In 2011 Wiseman presented a Radio 4 programme on the composer,

Joseph Horowitz Joseph Horowitz (born 1948 in New York City) is an American cultural historian whose seven books mainly deal with the institutional history of classical music in the United States. As a producer of concerts, he has played a pioneering role i ...

, and appeared on the panel of ''Your Desert Island Discs at Christmas'' with

Bill Bailey Mark Robert Bailey (born 13 January 1965), known professionally as Bill Bailey, is an English musician, comedian and actor. He is known for his role as Manny in the sitcom ''Black Books'' and his appearances on the panel shows ''Never Mind the ...

and Jo Whiley, presented by Kirsty Young. Since 2011, Wiseman has been signed as a recording artist to Warner Classics, her first solo album for the label, ''Piano Stories'', which featured piano solo performances by the composer of many of her scores, entered the UK Classical Artist Album Chart at number 10. She presented a Channel 4 series ''Backtracks'', examining the role of music in film and television productions. In 2013 she presented ''Scoring Father Brown'' for Radio 4, which followed her composition process through the various stages as she scored the music for the BBC drama series. She also scored '' A Poet in New York'', which was broadcast in 2014 on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

. In 2015 she wrote the theme tune and incidental music for BBC1's daytime drama ''

''. In late March 2015, Wiseman's original score for the acclaimed BBC drama series, ''Wolf Hall'', entered the UK's Classic FM chart at number 1. In the following year, it won the Royal Television Society West Awards for Best Composer, Drama, and the Music and Sound Awards for Best Original Composition, Television Programme Score. Wiseman is Classic FM's Composer in Residence and her first album commissioned by Classic FM, ''The Musical Zodiac'', reached Number 2 in the UK Classical Chart in September 2016. In 2016 she composed the soundtrack to the

Sheila Hancock Dame Sheila Cameron Hancock (born 22 February 1933) is an English actress, singer, and author. Hancock trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before starting her career in repertory theatre. Hancock went on to perform in plays and musica ...

2017 film Edie. Wiseman has composed new signature music for Viking Cruises and was honoured as Godmother to their new river ship, Viking Herja in March 2017. Wiseman's second album commissioned by Classic FM, ''The Glorious Garden'', a collaboration with Alan Titchmarsh, was released in March 2018 and topped the UK Classical Chart for three weeks.

2020s

Wiseman's album ''The Mythos Suite'', a collaboration with Stephen Fry, went to number 1 in the UK classical charts on its release in February 2020. Wiseman's album to celebrate the Queen's 95th birthday ''The Music of Kings and Queens'', with narration by

Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. ...

and Damian Lewis, went to number 1 in the UK Classical charts on its release in June 2021. Debbie was voted the most popular living composer in Classic FM Hall of Fame 2022 with seven entries: ''Wolf Hall'', ''Shakespeare and Hathaway'', ''Wilde'', ''The Musical Zodiac'', ''The Mythos Suite'', ''The Music of Kings and Queens'', and ''The Glorious Garden'' reaching its highest ever position in the chart at number 4. Wiseman was the official composer and musical director of the Platinum Jubilee Celebration at Windsor in May 2022.

References

External links

Official website

* ttp://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar98/articles/debbie.html Interviewat Sound on Sound
Biography
at cinemusic
Debbie Wiseman
at Soundtrackguide.net

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wiseman, Debbie, female English film score composers English television composers Women film score composers English conductors (music) Women conductors (music) Musicians from London British music educators Ivor Novello Award winners Officers of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Alumni of Trinity College of Music 1963 births Living people 21st-century British conductors (music) 21st-century women musicians