Composer of the Week: James MacMillan

Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Migrated podcast image for: Composer Of The Week

Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: James MacMillan (b 1959): A grandfather, a recorder and a confession

James MacMillan (b 1959)

A grandfather, a recorder and a confession

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, James MacMillan (b 1959), A grandfather, a recorder and a confession

James MacMillan discovers music in his Catholic family and East Ayrshire community.

MacMillan discovers music in his Catholic family and East Ayrshire community. A recorder at school plus his grandfather's love of brass bands unlocked a lifelong passion for music.

Sir James MacMillan is reflecting on his prolific life in composition as he celebrates his 60th birthday this week. 

He was born 16 July 1959 in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, but grew up in the East Ayrshire town of Cumnock. His grandfather introduced him to brass band music and his primary teacher taught him the recorder.  The combination of these musical experiences sparked a lifelong passion in James to make and create music of his own.

He studied composition at the University of Edinburgh with Kenneth Leighton and at Durham University with John Casken.  A trip to Darmstadt International Summer Course confirmed in him a longing to build on musical traditions of the past rather than abandoning all that has gone before. 
He caught the attention of the classical establishment with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's premiere of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the BBC Proms in 1990.  Isobel Gowdie was one of many women executed for witchcraft in 17th-century Scotland.


The Storm from Into the Ferment
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
James MacMillan, conductor

Berserking (1st movement)
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
James MacMillan, conductor

It is Finished, from Seven Last Words from the Cross
Polyphony
Britten Sinfonia
Stephen Layton, conductor

The Confession of Isobel Gowdie
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
James MacMillan, conductor


Presenter: Donald Macleod
Producer: Rosie Boulton

Composer of the Week: James MacMillan (b 1959)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Sir James MacMillan reflects on his life in composition as he celebrates his 60th birthday

Sir James MacMillan is reflecting on his prolific life in composition as he celebrates his 60th birthday this week.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Composer of the Week

James MacMillan (b 1959)

A grandfather, a recorder and a confession

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3