
King's musical sage Errollyn Wallen blazes new path
'He likes listening to music and he is curious about it — he has broad tastes, which is really wonderful," added Wallen, who premiered her "funky" new composition "Elements" at the first night of the renowned Proms music festival in London on Friday. Charles showed a lighter side in March when he shared his favourite songs from around the Commonwealth in an Apple podcast, revealing a surprising appreciation of disco, reggae and Afrobeats and including hits from such artists as Kylie Minogue and Diana Ross.
In a sign of his musical conviction, Charles sought advice from Wallen — "but in the end the king chose his own" songs, she said. "It was important for him to choose tracks that brought back personal memories to him and that's the power of music," said the pianist, violinist and singer.
"Think of the people he's met, all the great musicians. It's incredible," added the self-confessed cake fanatic.
Wallen was born in the former British colony of Belize in 1958, and soon showed signs of a precocious talent. "My parents said that as a baby, I didn't cry, but I was always singing." She moved to London aged two and her mother and father then relocated to New York, leaving her and her siblings, one of whom is the jazz trumpeter Byron Wallen, in the care of her aunt and uncle.
"I was always making up songs for any boring chore," she recalled.
Wallen credits a junior school teacher for setting her on her current path. "I was very lucky that at school, all of us nine-year-olds were taught to read and write music, but also introduced to orchestral music."
However, she received little encouragement to pursue a career as a composer. "I love my family, but I think there was the idea that you wouldn't step out of the ordinary," she explained. Another early memory is of a non-music teacher telling her "you know, little girl, classical music isn't for you".
"These subtle messages going in that I might be good at music, but I wouldn't belong to that world.
"But I was so curious and passionate about music... I think the negative messages didn't go in deeply."
Indeed, taking the road less travelled only strengthed her conviction and "led me into other paths of music making which has stood me in great stead".
"I was a keyboard player and I played music in the community and care homes -- it opened my eyes to how music can touch people."
It was at boarding school that the classical bug really took hold, and it was later nurtured at Goldsmiths', King's College London and King's College, Cambridge. Wallen also appeared as a backing artist for the 1990s girl group "Eternal" and performed as a tap dancer, having trained as a dancer in London and New York. She had her own recording studio, and her work includes 22 operas and a range of orchestral, chamber and vocal compositions.
She also composed a piece for the Paralympics Opening Ceremony in 2012. But she still admitted to being "so shocked" when the palace called last July, generating headlines about her being the first black woman to assume the role. "I had to remind the palace, I'm the first black person, full stop. There's never been a person of colour in this role, since 1626."
Agence France-Presse
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The National
an hour ago
- The National
Ozzy Osbourne AI tribute sparks 'digital resurrection' debate
Fans of Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne have criticised musician Tom Morello after he shared an AI-generated image of the rock star, who died this week at the age of 76. Osbourne bid farewell to fans earlier this month with a Black Sabbath reunion show in the British city of Birmingham. His death led to tributes from fans and musicians. They included Morello's post, which sparked anger among X users. The backlash over the stylised image – which included deceased rock stars Lemmy, Randy Rhodes and Ronnie James Dio – centred on what many saw as an exploitative and unsettling trend, with users questioning the ethics of sharing such visuals so soon after Osbourne's death. It is the latest flashpoint in a growing debate: when does using AI to recreate someone's likeness cross the line from tribute to invasion of privacy? While the tools behind these hyper-realistic images are evolving rapidly, the ethical frameworks and legal protections have not yet caught up. Deepfakes and grief in digital age Using AI to recreate the dead or the dying, sometimes referred to as "grief tech" or "digital resurrection", is becoming increasingly common, from fan-made tributes of celebrities to "griefbots" that simulate the voice or personality of a lost loved one. In an example of grief tech, Canadian Joshua Barbeau last year used Project December, a GPT-3-based chatbot created by Jason Rohrer, to recreate conversations with his dead fiancee from September 2020, eight years after her death. The chatbot's responses were so convincing that she "said" things like: "Of course it is me. Who else could it be? I am the girl that you are madly in love with." Mental health experts warn that such recreations can profoundly affect the grieving process. "The predictable and comforting responses of AI griefbots can create unrealistic expectations for emotional support, which could impact a person's ability to build healthy relationships in the future," said Carolyn Yaffe, a cognitive behaviour therapist at Medcare Camali Clinic in Dubai. "Some people find comfort and a sense of connection through them. In contrast, others might face negative effects, like prolonged denial, emotional pain, or even feelings of paranoia or psychosis." Interacting with AI likenesses can blur the lines between memory and reality, potentially distorting a person's emotional recovery, Ms Yaffe said. "These tools may delay acceptance and create a space where people stay connected to digital surrogates instead of moving on," she added. "Grief doesn't fit into neat algorithms." Lack of legal safeguards There is limited legal protection against these practices. In the Middle East, specific laws around AI-generated likenesses are still emerging. Countries including the UAE and Saudi Arabia address deepfakes under broader laws related to cyber crimes, defamation, or personal data protection. But there are still no clear regulations dealing with posthumous image rights or the AI-based recreation of people. Most laws focus on intent to harm, rather than on consent or digital legacy after death. In the UK, for example, there are no posthumous personality or image rights. Some states in the US, including California and New York, have begun to introduce limited protections, while others do not offer any. In China, draft legislation has begun to address AI deepfakes. Denmark, however, has been a pioneer on the issue, proposing a law that would grant people copyright-like control over their image, voice and likeness. The legislation, expected to pass this year, would allow Danish people to demand the removal of unauthorised deepfake content and seek civil damages, even posthumously, marking the first time such protections would be implemented in Europe. "Copyright does not protect someone's appearance or voice," said Andres Guadamuz, a reader in intellectual property law at the University of Sussex. "We urgently need to reform image and personality rights to address unauthorised AI depictions, particularly for vulnerable individuals, including the deceased or critically ill, where dignity, consent, and misuse risks are paramount." Consent, culture and control Ethical concerns about recreating the image or voice of someone who is critically ill or dead go beyond legal frameworks. Arda Awais, co-founder of UK-based digital rights collective Identity 2.0, believes that, even when AI tributes are carried out with good intentions, they carry significant risks. "Even with consent from the deceased, there could be ways a likeness is used which might not be 100 per cent in line with someone's wishes, too. Or how it's use evolves," Ms Awais said. She added that a one-size-fits-all approach may not be practical across different cultures, emphasising the need for more inclusive and diverse conversations when establishing ethical standards. While some families or individuals may welcome AI tributes as a means to preserve memories, others may view it as exploitative or harmful, particularly when it involves celebrities, whose images are frequently recycled without their permission. "Grief is such a personal experience," Ms Yaffe said. "For some, griefbots might provide a moment of relief. But they should be seen as a bridge, not the final destination." Experts warn that AI should never replace the emotional labour of mourning or the human connections that aid the healing process. "AI-generated responses can completely miss the point, not because the technology is harmful, but because it lacks the essential quality that grief requires – humanity," Ms Yaffe said.

The National
20 hours ago
- The National
How The Fantastic Four: First Steps harnesses 1960s optimism for a 'divided era'
As an actor, it can be hard to ground yourself in a world that's larger than life. Even more so if the character that you're playing is quite literally larger than life, too. 'How do I pull out a truthful performance when I'm a 14 billion-year-old cosmic vampire who's 750ft tall?' British actor Ralph Ineson wonders to The National. Ineson plays Galactus, the villain of Marvel's latest film, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. He, along with the Fantastic Four themselves, have been pillars of Marvel storytelling since the 1960s, but this marks their debut in the shared storytelling of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But it isn't the first time we've seen the Fantastic Four and company on the big screen. Discounting the unreleased 1990s film adaptation, this is the fourth go-around, with each previous iteration failing to impress fans – probably partly because they strayed too far from the source material. First Steps takes key lessons from those missteps. Most importantly, it embraces almost everything about the original 1960s comic books – right down to the tone, '60s setting and even the goofiness of having a 750ft-tall cosmic vampire appearing on screen. 'We realised that you really have to embrace the weirdness of it all,' Vanessa Kirby, who plays Fantastic Four member Sue Storm, says. To play that with truth and sincerity, each of the lead actors took a different approach. Ineson concentrated on size. 'I would try to go to places where I could look down and have the perspective of a giant. And I'd focus a lot on my breath,' he explains. 'I'm lucky that I have a voice that vibrates through my body more than most people, so I would stand on top of a building, just breathing. 'He's a cosmic force – trying to put human emotions into him is just pointless. So I had to convince myself I was 750ft tall. You get to truth in the strangest ways, sometimes.' Pedro Pascal, who plays Fantastic Four member Reed Richards, thinks Ineson's voice may have been the key to the entire thing. 'Every time Ralph speaks, my body has a reaction,' Pascal says. For the Fantastic Four themselves – Pascal as Reed, Kirby as Sue, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm – the most important aspect to understanding their characters and their world was taking themselves back to the space-age optimism of the 1960s. Moss-Bachrach says: 'We watched a lot of footage of Apollo missions. And we also saw a lot of documentary footage from the '60s to place it, to contextualise it and get a hold of the perspective. 'We've come so far from that spirit of optimism and the great space race. And it was helpful to get a window into these missions that would embody the hopes and dreams and capture an entire nation. 'We're such a divided place these days. So I think those Apollo things in particular were very helpful to understanding how things once were.' To harness that optimism, director Matt Shakman studied the 1964 World's Fair in New York. 'They had a monorail and saucer-shaped buildings. I thought, this is what the people of the 1960s dreamt of what the future would look like, so let's make all of our New York look like this,' says Shakman. Pascal, meanwhile, first and foremost focused not on the setting, but on character. Reed Richards, after all, is not just a superhero, he's also the smartest man in the world. What weaknesses would such a man have? 'At his core, my authorship of Reed is that he's incredibly co-dependent. Without his family, he doesn't know how to function. He's lost to his own brain. His identity is related utterly to his family and his position in the family, and protecting them, and being protected by them,' Pascal explains. Julia Garner, who plays the cosmically powerful Shalla-Bal – the Silver Surfer and herald of Galactus – also had to focus on her character's weaknesses first and foremost. 'She's got quite a tragic back story,' says Garner. 'I had to focus on the loss in her life, really feeling it, and then focus on suppressing that loss because she had a job to do.' Making it all click, of course, was just a matter of chemistry – and that's not something that you can ever produce consciously, according to Moss-Bachrach. 'There's no boot camp for pheromones. Thankfully, in this case, we really got along like a house on fire,' he says. Quinn, on the other hand, found playing Johnny Storm a lot like playing himself. 'I had to balance his bravado with his comedic instinct and intelligence,' says Quinn. 'I have to do this a lot in my personal life – I'm always spinning those three big plates, and you never know which plate you're going to drop.' But dropping a plate, in director Shakman's view, is a feature, not a bug. 'These people have so much messiness, and that's what makes them so relatable.'

The National
20 hours ago
- The National
How Fantastic Four: The First Steps harnesses 1960s optimism for a 'divided era'
As an actor, it can be hard to ground yourself in a world that's larger than life. Even more so if the character that you're playing is quite literally larger than life, too. 'How do I pull out a truthful performance when I'm a 14 billion-year-old cosmic vampire who's 750ft tall?' British actor Ralph Ineson wonders to The National. Ineson plays Galactus, the villain of Marvel's latest film, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. He, along with the Fantastic Four themselves, have been pillars of Marvel storytelling since the 1960s, but this marks their debut in the shared storytelling of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But it isn't the first time we've seen the Fantastic Four and company on the big screen. Discounting the unreleased 1990s film adaptation, this is the fourth go-around, with each previous iteration failing to impress fans – probably partly because they strayed too far from the source material. First Steps takes key lessons from those missteps. Most importantly, it embraces almost everything about the original 1960s comic books – right down to the tone, '60s setting and even the goofiness of having a 750ft-tall cosmic vampire appearing on screen. 'We realised that you really have to embrace the weirdness of it all,' Vanessa Kirby, who plays Fantastic Four member Sue Storm, says. To play that with truth and sincerity, each of the lead actors took a different approach. Ineson concentrated on size. 'I would try to go to places where I could look down and have the perspective of a giant. And I'd focus a lot on my breath,' he explains. 'I'm lucky that I have a voice that vibrates through my body more than most people, so I would stand on top of a building, just breathing. 'He's a cosmic force – trying to put human emotions into him is just pointless. So I had to convince myself I was 750ft tall. You get to truth in the strangest ways, sometimes.' Pedro Pascal, who plays Fantastic Four member Reed Richards, thinks Ineson's voice may have been the key to the entire thing. 'Every time Ralph speaks, my body has a reaction,' Pascal says. For the Fantastic Four themselves – Pascal as Reed, Kirby as Sue, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm – the most important aspect to understanding their characters and their world was taking themselves back to the space-age optimism of the 1960s. Moss-Bachrach says: 'We watched a lot of footage of Apollo missions. And we also saw a lot of documentary footage from the '60s to place it, to contextualise it and get a hold of the perspective. 'We've come so far from that spirit of optimism and the great space race. And it was helpful to get a window into these missions that would embody the hopes and dreams and capture an entire nation. 'We're such a divided place these days. So I think those Apollo things in particular were very helpful to understanding how things once were.' To harness that optimism, director Matt Shakman studied the 1964 World's Fair in New York. 'They had a monorail and saucer-shaped buildings. I thought, this is what the people of the 1960s dreamt of what the future would look like, so let's make all of our New York look like this,' says Shakman. Pascal, meanwhile, first and foremost focused not on the setting, but on character. Reed Richards, after all, is not just a superhero, he's also the smartest man in the world. What weaknesses would such a man have? 'At his core, my authorship of Reed is that he's incredibly co-dependent. Without his family, he doesn't know how to function. He's lost to his own brain. His identity is related utterly to his family and his position in the family, and protecting them, and being protected by them,' Pascal explains. Julia Garner, who plays the cosmically powerful Shalla-Bal – the Silver Surfer and herald of Galactus – also had to focus on her character's weaknesses first and foremost. 'She's got quite a tragic back story,' says Garner. 'I had to focus on the loss in her life, really feeling it, and then focus on suppressing that loss because she had a job to do.' Making it all click, of course, was just a matter of chemistry – and that's not something that you can ever produce consciously, according to Moss-Bachrach. 'There's no boot camp for pheromones. Thankfully, in this case, we really got along like a house on fire,' he says. Quinn, on the other hand, found playing Johnny Storm a lot like playing himself. 'I had to balance his bravado with his comedic instinct and intelligence,' says Quinn. 'I have to do this a lot in my personal life – I'm always spinning those three big plates, and you never know which plate you're going to drop.' But dropping a plate, in director Shakman's view, is a feature, not a bug. 'These people have so much messiness, and that's what makes them so relatable.'