“A towering performance by the BBC Philharmonic under the composer James MacMillan. He is proving a conductor of daunting ability.” The Sunday Times
James MacMillan is one of today’s most successful living composers and is also internationally active as a conductor. His musical language is flooded with influences from his Scottish heritage, his Roman Catholic faith, social conscience and close connection with Celtic folk music, blended together with influences from Far Eastern, Scandinavian and Eastern European music.
MacMillan first became internationally recognised after the extraordinary success of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the BBC Proms in 1990. His prolific output has since been performed and broadcast around the world, placing him in the front rank of today’s composers. His major works include Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, the percussion concerto which has received more than 400 performances, a cello concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich, a major choral-orchestral work Quickening, and three symphonies. His recent major works include his new opera The Sacrifice, premiered by Welsh National Opera and conducted by MacMillan, and his St John Passion, premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis in 2008, with performances in 2009 and 2010 by co-commissioners the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Boston Symphony and Rundfunkchor Berlin.
MacMillan was appointed Affiliate Composer of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in 1990, and between 1992 and 2002 he was Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Orchestra's Music of Today series. In January 2005 MacMillan was the focus of a major retrospective in the BBC Symphony’s annual composer weekend at London’s Barbican Centre, where he conducted concerts with both the BBC Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestras.
MacMillan is enjoying increasing international success as a conductor, and has been Composer/Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic since September 2000, in which role he has conducted new commissions, recording projects for Chandos and performances at the Bridgewater Hall, BBC Proms, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Athens Megaron, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and an ongoing series of Composer-portrait concerts, featuring the music of Kalevi Aaho, Magnus Lindberg, Harrison Birtwistle, John Casken, Unsuk Chin and Brett Dean. Recent guest conducting successes include concerts with the Baltimore Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, NHK Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Melbourne Symphony.
During the 2008/09 season MacMillan conducts the Rotterdam Philharmonic as part of 'James MacMillan: The Story so Far' - a season long focus on his music in Rotterdam. As part of this he also conducts the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and a performance of his large scale work Quickening with local university and conservatoire students, as well as various other performances of his music across the season. Other conducting highlights this season include at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw as part of the prestigious Saturday Matinee series with the Netherlands Radio Kammer Filharmonie, his music theatre work Parthenogenesis at the Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre with Britten Sinfonia and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, RTE National Symphony Orchestra and at the Wratislavia Cantans Festival in Poland. He also conducts various projects with the BBC Philharmonic as part of his role as Composer-Conductor, including a concert at the Bridgewater Hall in celebration of MacMillan’s 50th birthday.
James MacMillan has directed many of his own works on recordings for Chandos, BIS and BMG; his latest release features his Organ Concerto A Scotch Bestiary and Piano Concerto No.2 with BBC Philharmonic and Wayne Marshall for Chandos. He was awarded a CBE in January 2004.
James MacMillan is represented by Intermusica.
The works of James MacMillan are published by Boosey & Hawkes.
October 2008 / 562 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.