James MacMillan

Short Biography

James MacMillan is the pre-eminent Scottish composer of his generation. He first attracted attention with the acclaimed BBC Proms premiere of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (1990). His percussion concerto Veni, Veni Emmanuel (1992) has received over 500 performances worldwide by orchestras including London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics and Cleveland Orchestra. Other major works include the cantata Seven Last Words from the Cross (1993), Quickening (1998) for soloists, children's choir, mixed choir and orchestra, the operas Inès de Castro (2001) and The Sacrifice (2005-06), St John Passion (2007), St Luke Passion (2013), Symphony No.5: 'Le grand Inconnu' (2018) and Concerto for Orchestra (2023).

He was featured composer at Edinburgh Festival (1993, 2019), Southbank Centre (1997), BBC’s Barbican Composer Weekend (2005), Grafenegg Festival (2012), Stockholm's Composer Festival (2024) and in a celebration across the Twin Cities in Minnesota (2025). His interpreters include soloists Evelyn Glennie, Colin Currie, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Nicola Benedetti, conductors Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Sir Mark Elder and Sir Donald Runnicles, choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and stage director Katie Mitchell, and many works set texts by poet Michael Symmons Roberts. His recordings can be found on BMG/RCA Red Seal, BIS, Chandos, Naxos, Hyperion, Coro, Linn, LSO Live and Challenge Classics.

Recent MacMillan highlights include Stabat Mater for The Sixteen streamed in 2018 from the Sistine Chapel, the 40-voice motet Vidi aquam, Christmas Oratorio streamed in 2021 from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, and the anthem Who Shall Separate Us? commissioned for the funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. The annual Cumnock Tryst festival was founded by the composer in 2014 in his childhood town in Scotland.

Long Biography

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 and settled in Glasgow. The successful premiere of Tryst at the 1990 St Magnus Festival led to his appointment as Affiliate Composer of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Between 1992 and 2002 he was Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Orchestra's Music of Today series of contemporary music concerts. MacMillan is internationally active as a conductor, working as Composer/Conductor with the BBC Philharmonic between 2000 and 2009, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic from 2009 to 2013. He was awarded a CBE in January 2004.

In addition to The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, which launched MacMillan's international career at the BBC Proms in 1990, his early orchestral output included his first percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, premiered by Evelyn Glennie in 1992, which has since received over 500 performances worldwide. MacMillan's music has been programmed extensively at international music festivals, including the Edinburgh Festival in 1993 and 2019, the Bergen Festival in 1997, the Southbank Centre's 1997 Raising Sparks festival in London, the Queensland Biennial in 1999, the BBC Barbican Composer Weekend in 2005, the Grafenegg Festival in 2012, Stockholm's Composer Festival in 2024 and a celebration across the Twin Cities in Minnesota in 2025. A documentary film portrait of MacMillan by Robert Bee was screened on ITV's South Bank Show in 2003.

Works by MacMillan from the 1990s 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 in 1996 and given a second production in 2015, a triptych of orchestral works written for the London Symphony Orchestra and Mstislav Rostropovich between 1995 and 1997, and Quickening for vocal ensemble, chorus and orchestra, co-commissioned by the BBC Proms and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

MacMillan works composed in the 2000s include Piano Concerto No.2 first performed with choreography by Christopher Wheeldon at New York City Ballet, A Scotch Bestiary commissioned to inaugurate the new organ at Walt Disney Concert Hall with soloist Wayne Marshall and the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, and The Sacrifice premiered and toured by Welsh National Opera in 2007. His St John Passion, co-commissioned by the LSO, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Radio Choir, was premiered under the baton of Sir Colin Davis in 2008.

The 2010s ushered in an ongoing sequence of concertos: for violinists Vadim Repin and Nicola Benedetti, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, oboist Nicholas Daniel, violist Lawrence Power, percussionist Colin Currie, trombonist Jörgen van Rijen, saxophonist Amy Dickson and euphonist David Childs. Orchestral scores have included Woman of the Apocalypse premiered by Marin Alsop at the Cabrillo Festival, Symphony No.4 premiered at the 2015 BBC Proms and Concerto for Orchestra composed in 2023 to a commission from six international orchestras. Works with choir include a festive setting of the Gloria (to mark the 50th anniversary of the consecration of Coventry Cathedral), St Luke Passion for chorus and chamber orchestra, Stabat Mater for choir and string orchestra, his setting of wartime poetry All the Hills and Vales Along for tenor, choir, brass band and strings, Symphony No.5: 'Le grand Inconnu' for chorus and orchestra, the 40-voice motet Vidi aquam, Christmas Oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra and Ordo Virtutum, setting a sacred drama by Hildegard of Bingen. His one-act chamber opera Clemency has been performed in London, Edinburgh, Boston, Amsterdam and Tallinn. 2014 saw MacMillan launching a new annual music festival in his home town of Cumnock and in 2017 a city-wide celebration of his music took place in Glasgow.

MacMillan's music is widely recorded, launched with award-winning releases in 1993 of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie on Koch Schwann and Veni, Veni, Emmanuel with Evelyn Glennie on BMG RCA Red Seal. Recordings on the BIS label include the complete Triduum conducted by Osmo Vänskä, the clarinet concerto Ninian and the trumpet concerto Epiclesis. A MacMillan series on Chandos with the BBC Philharmonic includes The Berserking, Symphony No.3: 'Silence' which won a Classical Brit award in 2006, Quickening and The Sacrifice. Other acclaimed recordings include Mass and Seven Last Words from the Cross on Hyperion, Stabat Mater and Symphony No.5: 'Le grand Inconnu' on Coro, and releases on the Naxos, Linn, LSO Live, LPO and Challenge Classics labels.

James MacMillan was awarded a Knighthood in the 2015 Queen's Birthday honours and his anthem Who Shall Separate Us? was commissioned for the 2022 funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II. He is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes.

November 2025