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MacMillan Patronage of Cambridge |
| The City of Cambridge Band is delighted to announce that James MacMillan, the eminent Scottish composer has accepted the Band’s invitation to become its Patron. Mr MacMillan was approached about the position by Peter Bassano, the Band’s Musical Director who was appointed in the spring since which time the Band has pursued a more serious artistic policy than that normally associated with bands. The Band has quickly set up over the next year, a series of eleven church concerts throughout Cambridgeshire with programmes which are weightier than usual but so far have proved to be highly appreciated by the audiences. The Band is particularly keen to promote concerts of good contemporary band music much of which remains rarely, if ever performed in concert. Cambridge is an obvious place where this music, carefully programmed might resurface and still attract a respectable audience. Along with retaining the Band’s core audience for lighter music, Peter Bassano is anxious that the Band should quickly become identified with the more profound side of the repertoire and believes that James Macmillan’s patronage will go a long way to help achieve that. Dr James MacMillan (born on July 16, 1959) is a Scottish classical composer. MacMillan was born at Kilwinning, North Ayrshire. From the age of 4, he was brought up in nearby Cumnock, attending the local non-denominational school rather than the Catholic school. His earliest compositions were written in 1969. He often complains about anti-Catholicism in contemporary Scotland, but is also a Scottish republican. He studied composition at the University of Edinburgh with Rita McAlister, and at Durham University with John Casken, gaining a PhD in 1987. He was a music lecturer at the University of Manchester from 1986–1988. After his studies, MacMillan returned to Scotland, composing prolifically, and becoming Associate Composer with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, working on education projects. He came to the attention of the classical establishment with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra's premiere of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the Proms in 1990. Isobel Gowdie was one of many women executed for witchcraft in 17th century Scotland. According to the composer, "the work craves absolution and offers Isobel Gowdie the mercy and humanity that was denied her in the last days of her life" (programme note). The work's international acclaim spurred more high-profile commissions, including a percussion concerto for his fellow Scot, Evelyn Glennie. Veni, Veni, Emmanuel was premiered in 1992 and has become MacMillan's most performed work. He was also asked by Mstislav Rostropovich to compose a violoncello concerto; this was premiered by Rostropovich in 1997. James MacMillan's compositions are infused with the spiritual and the political. Catholicism has inspired many of his pieces, including many sacred works for choir, e.g. Magnificat (1999), and several Masses. This central strand of his life and compositions was marked by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in early 2005, with an unparalleled survey of his music entitled From Darkness into Light. MacMillan and his wife are lay Dominicans, and he has collaborated with Michael Symmons Roberts, a Catholic poet, and also Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Scottish traditional music has had a profound musical influence, and is frequently discernible in his works. When the Scottish Parliament was reconvened in 1999 after 292 years, MacMillan's fanfare accompanied the Queen into the chamber. Weeks after the opening ceremony, MacMillan lauched an outspoken attack on sectarianism in Scotland in a speech entitled Scotland's Shame. (BBC News). MacMillan's use of (even subliminally) familiar themes, coupled with his colourful orchestration, has made his music more accessible than the more academic style of avant-garde composers. This accessibility is further demonstrated by the range of his liturgical music: his Mass of 2000 was commissioned by Westminster Cathedral and contains sections which are for liturgical use only, some of which the congregation may join in; his St. Anne's Mass and Galloway Mass do not require advanced musicianship, being designed to be taught to a congregation. James MacMillan was appointed composer and conductor with the BBC Philharmonic in 2000, and is expected to continue working with them until 2009. His collaboration with Symmons Roberts is continuing with his second opera, based on the ancient Welsh tales of the Mabinogion. This is expected to be premiered by Welsh National Opera in 2007. Sundogs, a large-scale work for chorus a cappella, also on texts by Symmons Roberts will be premiered by the Indiana University Contemporary Vocal Ensemble in August 2006. He has recently become a Patron of the London Oratory School Schola Cantorum along with Simon Callow and HRH Princess Micheal of Kent Peter Bassano, a former Head of Brass at the Royal College of Music comments: “Some twenty five years ago when I was trombone player with the newly formed brass quintet Equale Brass we asked Sir David Willcocks to become the quintet’s Patron. There were two reasons for asking Sir David, I knew him well because he was Director of the Royal College of Music where I was a professor and secondly because both of our trumpet players - John Wallace and John Miller - had been undergraduates at King’s College when Sir David was organist and choir master there. We discovered that having a well known patron gave a respectability to an otherwise unknown ensemble and helped to be taken seriously in more elevated musical circles. When I started conducting a few years later, as a conductor of Besses' o' th' Barn Band I asked Simon Rattle to become Besses' Patron, which he did, (as far as I know, he still is); as a result several festival engagements came our way and I was able to commission new works from Tim Souster, Joe Horovitz, and Andrew Powell. When I was at the RCM further commissions for band were provided by Chris Batchelor, Simon Dobson and Gabriela Swallow. More recently, Sir Thomas Allen, an old friend became Patron of my Wendover Choral Society, having his name associated with WCS has helped enormously with raising the Choir's artistic profile and, I believe fund-raising too. In the case of Sir Thomas he has helped in a practical way too by last year singing the role of Don Giovanni at a WCS concert. I couldn’t be more thrilled by James’ acceptance of the Band’s offer to become Patron. As a composer and conductor I hold him in the highest esteem. I have worked with him on many occasions, the first time at the Edinburgh Festival when he conducted my old orchestra, the Philharmonia in his formidible Confession of Isobel Gowdie during the same Festival I heard concert of choral music - a retrospective of his output from student days, all most impressive. James was appointed Director of the Music of Today series of pre-Royal Festival Hall contemporary concerts designed to whet the appetite of a conventional symphony orchestra audience for modern music. Last year I collaborated with him for concerts as part of the Aldburgh Easter Festival in works by Debussy, Britten, Mozart - MacMillan’s Seven Last Words From The Cross and the brass work Adam’s Rib. As well as Adam’s Rib James has already written a number of works for brass including early brass band work Festival Fanfares I hope that he might eventually find time to revisit the medium.” |