“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, 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. He 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 much in demand internationally 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 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 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, NHK Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Melbourne Symphony.
Highlights of 2007/8 include conducting the world premiere of his new opera The Sacrifice with Welsh National Opera at the Wales Millennium Centre, followed by further performances across the UK. Directed by Katie Mitchell, with a libretto by the award-winning poet Michael Symmons Roberts, The Sacrifice is a story of love, revenge and reconciliation, inspired by the heightened mythical world of The Mabinogion: a collection of ancient Welsh folktales. He also conducts the world premiere of an orchestral suite The Sacrifice: Three Interludes, based on his opera, with the BBC Philharmonic and is Artistic Director of the RTE Living Music Festival 2008. Another major premiere of this season is MacMillan's St John Passion , to be premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis, co-commissioned by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Runfunkchor Berlin. Other future highlights include invitations to conduct the Baltimore Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and his debut with the Munich Philharmonic.
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. Nov 2007 / 485 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.