Claire van Kampen

Claire Louise van Kampen, Lady Rylance (3 November 1953 – 18 January 2025) was an English director, composer, and playwright. She was the founding director of music at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre from 1997 to 2015, first as assistant to her husband, actor and director Mark Rylance, then with his successor, Dominic Dromgoole, often creating "period" music for Shakespeare's plays. Van Kampen composed music for productions in both London's West End theatres and on New York City's Broadway which often starred her husband, covering a wide range of repertoire from Helen by Euripides to contemporary plays such as Nice Fish. She also worked as musical director and stage director for some of them. She ventured into composing music for a film, Nights and Days, advising and arranging music for the Wolf Hall television series of the BBC, and composing a ballet for the New York Theatre Ballet. She wrote a play, Farinelli and the King, which was successfully performed both in London and on Broadway.

Early life and education Van Kampen was born in Marylebone, London on 3 November 1953, the only child of the businessman Paul van Kampen and his wife Ruth (née Relph), and grew up in Muswell Hill.

As her father died when she was age 12, her mother worked as a secretary to afford piano lessons for Claire, who started teaching others from age 14. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 1986 and the Royal National Theatre in 1987, making her the first female musical director to work with both companies. and Peter Oswald's The Golden Ass in 2002, which contained a 30-minute opera Cupid and Psyche. She worked at the Globe during Rylance's term as the theatre's first artistic director Her ballet Uncaged, with choreography by Antonia Franceschi, premiered with the New York Theatre Ballet in 2020. The marriage ended in divorce. Her daughter Juliet became an actress and took the surname of her stepfather. Her daughter Nataasha van Kampen became a filmmaker. She died of a suspected brain haemorrhage on a flight from New York in July 2012 at the age of 28. It was her husband's 65th birthday. 2006–2007 Love's Labour's Lost Shakespeare's Globe, London Composer 2007 Bash Theatre of Memory, London Composer 2008 Peer Gynt Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis Composer 2008 King Lear Shakespeare's Globe, London Composer 2008–2009 Boeing-Boeing Longacre Theatre, New York City Original music 2009 Helen Shakespeare's Globe, London, and US Tour Composer and musical director 2010 Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2 Shakespeare's Globe, London Composer and musical director 2012–2013 Twelfth Night Apollo Theatre, London, and Broadway Music 2015 Wolf Hall BBC Television Music advisor and arranger 2024 Juno and the Paycock Gielgud Theatre Composer