Professor Paul Mealor inspires students to write music
By Megan Widley
Photo from Paul Mealor
Aberdeen University’s music composition professor, Paul Mealor, has been selected to compose a piece of music for King Charles III’s coronation in the spring. The coronation is taking place on the 6th of May at Westminster Abbey. Notably, this is not Mealor’s first time writing music for the royal family.
According to his biography on The University of Aberdeen website, Mealor composed pieces for The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding, said motet was heard by over 2.5 billion people. Mealor also told The Gaudie: “A decade ago, I was busy preparing music for Her Majesty The Queen Consort’s installation as the University’s Chancellor.” Mealor also mentioned that HM The Queen Consort has been an “active supporter of our University music.” In addition, Mealor composed an album entitled A Tender Light, which was at the top of the Specialist Classical charts for over a month. Among his other achievements are his composition of a song entitled In My Dreams which was performed by Jonjo Kerr and rose to number one of the pop charts according to his biography.
Mealor studied music composition at the University of York, graduating in 1997, and has been at the University of Aberdeen for 20 years working as a professor of composition. Mealor told The Gaudie that “it is the most amazing honour to be asked to produce a piece of music for such an important historic occasion.” He also expressed that the process of writing this piece could be an intimidating experience, stating: “once the adrenaline of being selected for this honour wears off, it is rather daunting to begin putting pencil to manuscript and trusting that what you write will be worthy of such a stage.”
Students at The University of Aberdeen have described Mealor’s experiences as inspiring. One student told The Gaudie: “I think it’s quite cool that one of our own professors is able to take part in something this big.” Another added: “Seeing a professor who started in the same place as most of us - at university - do something so monumental is incredibly eye opening and I really hope to see myself achieve something like that someday.”
