Presto Presents... Debbie Wiseman

With credits as diverse as anthems for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III, the scores for Peter Kosminsky's towering BBC adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall novels (starring Sir Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell), and the theme-music for Father Brown, Shakespeare & Hathaway and The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, British composer and presenter Debbie Wiseman is well on the way to national treasure status. This year she celebrated her first decade as Classic FM's Composer In Residence with the publication of Ten, an album of favourite pieces in her own arrangements for solo piano - available now through Faber Music, with a companion CD recently released on Silva Screen.

On the evening of Wednesday 30th July, Debbie joined us in-store to discuss her route to becoming a composer (including the lessons learned from an early gig penning a jingle for an orangeade commercial!), the experience of writing music for royal occasions, collaborating with Stephen Fry to bring the Greek myths to life, and the challenges and rewards of composing for the screen. She also performed a selection of pieces from the album, including 'Man of Sorrows' from The Mirror and the Light (which rounds off the video below).