Debbie Wiseman, OBE is a British composer for film and television, known also as a conductor and a radio and television presenter.
Biography
One of the UK's most successful female music ambassadors, Debbie Wiseman was born in London. She studied at Trinity College of Music 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, and regularly gives lectures to schools and colleges about the art of composing music for picture. In 2008 she composed a new Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra called Different Voices which was premiered by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as part of their 60th birthday celebrations, and the work is now frequently performed by school and youth orchestras across the country. In 2004 she was awarded an MBE in the 2004 New Year Honours List for services to the film industry, was awarded the OBE for Services to Music in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours List and has been awarded Honorary Fellowships at both colleges where she studied, 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
Wiseman's film music credits include Tom and Viv ; Haunted; Wilde ; Tom's Midnight Garden; The Guilty; Before You Go; Arsène Lupin ; Flood ; and Lesbian Vampire Killers. Amongst her many television music credits are Dickensian ; Wolf Hall ; A Poet in New York ; The Whale ; Lost Christmas ; The Passion; Jekyll; The Promise ; He Knew He Was Right; Warriors, Winner of Best Drama & Winner of Best Drama Serial ); Father Brown; WPC 56; The Coroner: Land Girls ; Joanna Lumley's Nile; Fry's Planet Word; Stephen Fry in America; Othello ; The Project; Judge John Deed; Feather Boy ; The Inspector Lynley Mysteries; Michael Palin's New Europe ; The Andrew Marr Show; Stig of the Dump ;. Her album of music to accompany Oscar Wilde's fairy stories, Wilde Stories was nominated for a Grammy Award and was used on a trilogy 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 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. A suite of her music from the film was included in the 2007 Great British Film Music Prom concert at the Royal Albert Hall conducted by John Wilson. In 2008 she composed and conducted the CD Different Voices with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with narration by Stephen Fry and solo vocals performed by Hayley Westenra, The lyrics are written by Don Black. As well as her composing work, Wiseman appears in concert halls across the country conducting her film scores, and also appears as an expert guest on the BBC TV broadcasts of The BBC Proms. In 2011 Wiseman presented a Radio 4 programme on the composer, Joseph Horowitz, and appeared on the panel of Your Desert Island Discs at Christmas with Bill Bailey 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. In 2015 she wrote the theme tune an incidental music for BBC1's daytime drama The Coroner. In 2016 Wiseman's original score for the acclaimed BBC drama series, Wolf Hall, won the Royal Television Society West Awards for Best Composer, Drama, and Best Original Composition: Television Programme Score in the Music & Sound Awards. The CD soundtrack album of Debbie’s original score for Wolf Hall entered the UK’s Classic FM chart at Number 1. Wiseman was one of 11 composers chosen to compose music for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on 3 June 2012, when she conducted her movement of “New Water Music” on The Georgian barge. She was commissioned to compose the Overture and Finale music for the Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebration in May 2016. 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. Wiseman has composed new signature music for Viking Cruises and was honoured as Godmother to their new river ship, Viking Herja in March 2017. In 2016 she composed the soundtrack to the Sheila Hancock 2017 film Edie. 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. 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.
