Claire van Kampen, a composer of music for plays and television dramas, as well as a director, writer and frequent collaborator of her Oscar-winning husband Mark Rylance, died Saturday morning at age 71, her family has announced.
Formally know as Lady Rylance, van Kampen died in the ancient town of Kassel, Germany, surrounded by her family, said a statement issued by Mark Rylance and van Kampen’s daughter Juliet Rylance.
The statement noted that van Kampen died on Mark Rylance’s 65th birthday.
Van Kampen was an accomplished musicologist, and her compositions graced many theatrical productions in London and on Broadway. Her first credited Broadway score was for Sam Shepard’s True West in 2000, which starred Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Robert LuPone and Celia Weston.
Five other shows, including Boeing-Boeing, La Bête, Richard III, Twelfth Night and Farinelli and the King all starred her husband.
Van Kampen wrote the play Farinelli and the King and its baroque music. It was originally produced for the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse by Shakespeare’s Globe in London, subsequently transferring to the West End before moving to Broadway.
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg, a family friend, saw the play, about a Spanish king who couldn’t sleep until he’d been soothed by the voice of a castrato, and persuaded van Kampen to pen a screenplay. “Steven’s mentoring me on the script,” van Kampen had said.
Van Kampen was named the first female composer for both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. She served as the Tudor music arranger and historical musical adviser for the TV adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall series of novels. She always said that she was at her happiest when studying ancient sheet music.
At the time of her death, van Kampen and Rylance had been working on several projects, including a historical TV drama for Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment.
Van Kampen, who was often vivacious and had a lively sense of humor, was beloved by those who came into her orbit.
Here’s the statement signed by Mark and Juliet Rylance.
Claire Louise van Kampen, Lady Rylance, has died this morning, Saturday the 18th of January at 11:47, in the ancient town of Kassel, Germany, surrounded by her family. Wife of architect Christopher van Kampen and, later, actor Sir Mark Rylance, Claire was mother of two girls with Christopher, Nataasha van Kampen and Juliet Rylance.
Concert Pianist, Composer, Musical Director at Shakespeare’s Globe for twenty years under Rylance and then Dominic Dromgoole, Playwright, Theatre Director, she was also one of the funniest and inspiring women we have ever known.
Claire has died of cancer on Mark Rylance’s 65th Birthday. Her youngest daughter having died in 2012, she leaves her eldest daughter, Juliet Rylance, her two husbands, and countless beloved friends in England and America.
We thank her for imbuing our lives with her magic, music, laughter, and love. Ring the bell, sound the trumpets reverie, something is done, something is beginning. One of the great wise ones has passed.
Mark and Juliet Rylance
