Born: 26 August 1956 in London, England.

Following her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Beamish worked as a freelance violist performing with groups such as the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and the London Sinfonietta. It wasn’t until her viola was stolen; did she dedicate herself to composition.

With influences from jazz to traditional Scottish music, and a catalogue containing hundreds of compositions from solos and duets to orchestra and opera works, Beamish holds quite the oeuvre. Her work has been broadcast and performed globally with notable performers including Håkan Hardenberger, John Harle, Branford Marsalis, Tabea Zimmermann, James Crabb, Dame Evelyn Glennie and Colin Currie.

Beamish has been named BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Week twice, both in February 2012 and July 2015. Between 2018 and 2020, she was Composer in Residence with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. She wrote Partita, a horns and string orchestra performance at the Academy’s 60th anniversary gala concert at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.