Shirley Thompson is a composer, artistic director, conductor, academic, violinist and film maker.

She was the first woman to compose and musically direct for a major drama series at the BBC. Since then, she became the first woman in Europe to have composed and conducted a symphony in the past 40 years. The piece is an epic story of London’s 1000 year history, and included the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, two choirs, solo singers, a rapper and dhol drummers.

Thomson draws influences from hop hop, reggae, jazz and soul, and her pieces include Queen Nanny of the Maroons, which was the first opera to give a heroic role to a woman’s voice. Queen Nanny was a rebel slave leader in 18th Century Jamaica.