Artist Biographies: James MacMillan

James MacMillan read music at Edinburgh University and took Doctoral studies in composition at Durham University with John Casken. After working as a lecturer at Manchester University, he returned to Scotland, settling in Glasgow where he teaches part-time at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. The successful premiere of Tryst at the 1990 St. Magnus Festival led to his appointment as Affiliate Composer of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. MacMillan is Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Orchestra's Music of Today series of contemporary music concerts, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's Discovery series of 20th century music. MacMillan is internationally active as a conductor and in 2000 was appointed the BBC Philharmonic's new Composer/Conductor.

MacMillan's music is notable for its extraordinary directness, energy and emotional power. References to Scottish folk music imbue MacMillan's work with a strong sense of the vernacular, while strongly-held religious and political beliefs, coupled with community concerns, inform both the spirit and subject matter of his music.

In addition to The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, which launched MacMillan's international career at the BBC Proms in 1990, his orchestral output includes the percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, composed for Evelyn Glennie. The concerto has received over 200 performances since its world premiere in 1992, including its U.S. premiere at Cabrillo Music Festival, featuring percussionist Colin Currie. MacMillan's music has been programmed extensively at international music festivals, including Cabrillo under conductor Marin Alsop, the Edinburgh Festival, the Bergen Festival, the South Bank Centre's Raising Sparks festival in London, and the Queensland Biennial in 1999.

Works by MacMillan also include Seven Last Words from the Cross for chorus and string orchestra, screened on BBC TV during Holy Week 1994, Inés de Castro, premiered by Scottish Opera and toured to Porto this year, a triptych of orchestral works commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra: The World's Ransoming, a Cello Concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich, and Symphony: 'Vigil' premiered under the baton of Rostropovich in 1997, and Quickening for The Hilliard Ensemble, chorus and orchestra, co-commissioned by the BBC Proms and the Philadelphia Orchestra. MacMillan's Symphony No.2 was commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and premiered in 1999, and receives its U.S. premiere this season at the Festival. A new orchestral score, The Birds of Rhiannon, received its premiere in London this summer.

In terms of recordings, the Koch Schwann disc of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie and Tryst won the 1993 Gramophone Contemporary Music Record of the Year Award, and the BMG recording of Veni, Veni, Emmanuel won the 1993 Classic CD Award for Contemporary Music. A second recording of Veni, Veni, Emmanuel has been released on the Naxos label, featuring Colin Currie. A series of MacMillan discs on the BIS label has to date included the complete Triduum conducted by Osmo Vänskä, the clarinet concerto Ninian and the trumpet concerto Epiclesis. Releases planned for 2001 include Symphony No.2 on BIS, choral works including Mass on Hyperion, and Raising Sparks on Black Box.

After featuring his works for many years, the Cabrillo Festival is delighted to welcome James MacMillan as composer-in-residence for the first time this season.