• Name: James MacMillan
• Birthday: 07/16/1959
• Birth Place: Kilwilling, North Ayrshire
• Period: Contemporary
• Genre: Classical

Title	Release
Macmillan: Symphony No. 3 'Silence'; The Confession of Isobel Gowdie
(3) . . . here in hiding. . ., for 4 male voices & unaccompanied choir	2008
(3) ... as others see us ..., for mixed ensemble
(2) A Cecilian Variation for JFK, for piano
(4) A Child's Prayer, for treble, chorus & organ	2009
A Different World, for violin & piano	2004
(4) A New Song, for chorus & organ	2008
A Scotch Bestiary, for organ & orchestra	2004
(2) Adam's Rib for brass quintet	1997
(2) After the Tryst, for violin & piano
(4) Angel, for piano
Ayrshire, for violin & orchestra	2006
(2) Barncleupédie, for piano	2001
(2) Birthday Present, for piano	2001
(4) Britannia, for orchestra	1995
Búsqueda, for speaker, actors, sopranos & ensemble	1993
(3) Cantos sagrados, for chamber chorus & organ	1994
Cantos Sargrados, for chorus
(2) Cello Concerto (being Part II of Triduum, an Easter triptych)	1997
Changed, for chorus & organ	2000
Chosen, for chorus & organ	2005
(7) Christus vincit, for treble, chorus & organ	2008
Clarinet Concerto "Ninian"	1999
(2) Concerto for piano and orchestra "The Berserking"	1995
Cumnock Fair	2000
Data est mihi, motet for chorus (Strathclyde Motet) W	2007
(2) Dawn Rituals (3), for chamber ensemble
Divo Aloysio Sacrum	2003
Dominus dabit benignitatem, motet for chorus (Strathclyde Motet) W	2007
Exsultet, symphonic fanfare (2 versions)	2001
Factus est repente, motet for chorus (Strathclyde Motet) W	2007
(2) For Ian, for piano	2001
(2) Fourteen Little Pictures, for piano trio	2008
(3) Gaudeamus in loci pace, for organ	2000
Í (A Meditation on Iona) for orchestra	1998
In angustiis... I, for piano	2002
In splendoribus sanctorum, motet for chorus (Strathclyde Motet) W	2007
Intercession, for 3 oboes	2007
Into the Ferment, for ensemble & orchestra	2002
Introit "Give me Justice", for chorus W	2007
(4) Kiss on Wood, for violin (or cello) & piano	1994
Laudi alla Vergine Maria, for choir WA
(3) Lumen Christi, for piano
Magnificat, for chorus & orchestra	2001
(2) Màiri, for a cappella chorus WA	2008
(2) Mass, for 2 basses, chorus & organ	2000
(2) Memento, for string quartet	2001
(3) Missa Brevis, for chorus WA	2007
(2) Mitte manum tuam, motet for chorus (Strathclyde Motet)	2009
Mouth of the Dumb, for 2 voices & harp	2008
Nemo te condemnavit, for chorus	2008

James MacMillan has produced a spate of works in various genres -- symphonic, concerto , opera , theater, sacred, choral, and much else. He has achieved great success with a number of them, placing him easily among the leading Scottish composers from the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries. 1990 was a watershed time for MacMillan: that year his theatrical piece Búsqueda (1988) was introduced at the Edinburgh International Festival, and his orchestral work The Confession of Isobel Gowdie was premiered at a Proms concert, both events catapulting him to national as well as international notice. The latter opus and his percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel are probably MacMillan's most popular large works. MacMillan's style incorporates some modernist characteristics (leftovers from his youth), but on the whole his music, with its use of scottish folk music; his quite approachable melodic and rhythmic invention; and his gift for imaginative and colorful scoring place his style well within the accessible range. Indeed, but his sacred music , inspired by his Roman Catholicism and sympathies for the oppressed, is stylistically often more challenging, with a mixture of the dissonant and the medieval, of disruption and consolation. MacMillan's works are widely available on recordings and often played in the concert hall, especially throughout the U.K.

James MacMillan was born in Kilwinning, Scotland, on July 16, 1959. Raised in Cumnock, North Ayrshire, he studied composition with Rita McAllister at the University of Edinburgh and with John Casken at Durham University.

After the success of Búsqueda and The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, MacMillan was suddenly in demand, with many important commissions: Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, was premiered in 1992 by Evelyn Glennie, with spectacular success, and the 1993 cantata Seven Last Words from the Cross, achieved great acclaim during its Holy Week screening on the BBC in 1994. Further, MacMillan produced a cello concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich, who premiered it in 1997.

In 2000 MacMillan began a nine-year stint as composer/conductor with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Since the turn of the century he has also conducted the London Symphony, the NHK, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, and many other orchestras in performances of his works and those of other contemporary composers (Birtwistle, Casken, Lindberg). Among MacMillan's most important recent works are his second opera , The Sacrifice, premiered by the Welsh National Opera in 2007, and his St. John Passion, premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 2008. ~ Robert Cummings, All Music Guide