DR. SHIRLEY J. THOMPSON OBE

Music filled Shirley’s childhood home in Stratford, East London. Her father would whistle Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto, a piece he had heard on the radio in Jamaica, and it sparked Shirley’s love of classical music. Her musical talent visible from a young age, Shirley started playing the recorder at age four, the violin at eleven and the piano at fourteen. Shirley pursued an undergraduate degree in musicology and modern history at the University of Liverpool and a Masters in aesthetics of contemporary classical music with composition at Goldsmiths University. Her passion for music and learning led her to complete a PhD in Contemporary Opera Composition and Aesthetics at the University of London which focused on changing the perception of women in opera. This thesis inspired Shirley to create Heroines of Opera, a series portraying female protagonists as strident and assertive rather than femme fatales and other demeaning traditional roles. The series focuses on submerged narratives from Africa and its progenies dispersed around the world. In addition to her role as a composer, Shirley is also a performer, writer, historian, academic and filmmaker. Her varied and groundbreaking career has seen her write, conduct and stage award-winning classical productions that have been performed at illustrious venues such as Southbank Centre in London and the Sydney Opera House.