Theatre director Claire van Kampen dies aged 71

Getty Images Claire van Kampen, who has a blonde updo and wears a floral dress with large silver earrings and a pendant necklace, smiles as her husband Mark Rylance puts his arm around her shoulder at a film screening — Claire van Kampen and Sir Mark Rylance married in 1989

British theatre director and composer Claire van Kampen has died aged 71, her husband actor Sir Mark Rylance has confirmed.

Van Kampen, who was the primary feminine musical director at each the Royal Shakespeare Firm and the Nationwide Theatre, died on Saturday after being identified with most cancers, a press release shared on behalf of Sir Mark and her daughter Juliet stated.

They described her as “one of many funniest and (most) inspiring ladies now we have ever recognized”.

Her theatre credit additionally embrace writing the play Farinelli And The King, which starred her husband and was nominated for a number of Olivier Awards together with finest new play, and numerous Tony Awards.

She died within the German city of Kassel surrounded by her household, the assertion stated. Saturday additionally marked Sir Mark’s sixty fifth birthday.

“We thank her for imbuing our lives together with her magic, music, laughter, and love,” it added.

“Ring the bell, sound the trumpets reverie, one thing is finished, one thing is starting. One of many nice clever ones has handed.”

Van Kampen and Sir Mark married in 1989, the identical yr she composed the music for the Royal Shakespeare Firm manufacturing of Hamlet which he starred in.

Van Kampen pictured with Sir Mark and her daughter, Juliet

PA Media Claire wears a black headband and a black embroided jacket with a string of pearls as she stands next to her husband Sir Mark outside Buckingham Palace after he was knighted — Van Kampen pictured with Sir Mark and her daughter, Juliet

She went on to compose unique scores for Broadway productions together with True West, Boeing-Boeing and La Bete, in addition to variations of Shakespeare’s Twelth Evening and Richard IIII.

After coaching on the Royal Faculty of Music in London, the place she studied music principle and piano, van Kampen joined the Royal Shakespeare Firm in 1986.

She joined the Royal Nationwide Theatre the next yr, and went on to function an inventive affiliate to Sir Mark at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre within the capital.

Most not too long ago, van Kampen was Globe affiliate and senior analysis fellow for early fashionable music on the Globe, in addition to a artistic affiliate on the Outdated Vic Theatre in London.

She additionally labored as a Tudor music advisor and organize for the BBC tv sequence Wolf Corridor.

Van Kampen had two daughters together with her earlier husband, architect Christopher van Kampen.

Her daughter Nataasha, a filmmaker, died aged 28 in 2012 after struggling a mind haemorrhage.

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