SIR JAMES MACMILLAN
Forthcoming highlights
February – May 2025
- BBC Singers give UK premiere of sacred musical drama to text by Hildegard of Bingen
- MacMillan conducts BBC SSO in works by Cumnock Tryst composers he has mentored, alongside the Scottish premiere of his new Concerto for Orchestra
- London Premiere of Violin Concerto No. 2 with Nicola Benedetti and LSO
- World premiere of new euphonium concerto with David Childs and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by the composer
- Major residency in USA sees MacMillan conduct two concerts with Minnesota Symphony Orchestra & a week-long Vocal Essence Festival celebrating his choral music
- Significant performances of his works by high-profile artists, orchestras and ensembles all over the world, including in Australia, Eire, Germany, Latvia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, USA
Sir James MacMillan is an artist of profound influence and innovation, whose career as a composer, conductor, and cultural advocate continues to shape and inspire the classical music world. His remarkable work resonates with audiences worldwide, and he consistently brings fresh perspectives to both contemporary and traditional repertoire.
In 2025, MacMillan’s artistry is marked by a series of notable events that underscore his standing as one of the most important figures in modern music.
Among the highlights for MacMillan early in the year is the UK premiere of a major new work for double choir and percussionist, Ordo Virtutum (13 February). This 55-minute sacred musical drama, performed by the BBC Singers at Milton Court sets a text by Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard originally created her own musical version in 1151, widely regarded as the first musical drama. The text explores the human soul’s struggle in a battle between Good and Evil, embodied by the Virtues and the Devil. Following the world premiere of MacMillan’s Ordo Virtutum’s premiere in Leipzig in January 2024, the Leipziger Volkszeitung praised the work for its ‘sensually shimmering, at times also overwhelmingly luminous soundscapes.”
MacMillan conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in the Scottish premieres of his celebratory new Concerto for Orchestra, Ghosts in Glasgow and Perth in February (20 & 21 February). This work launched the London Symphony Orchestra’s new season under Sir Antonio Pappano in September 2024 to great acclaim and has since been performed in Sweden and Australia, with further performances scheduled in Scotland, Singapore, New Zealand, and the USA in the coming months. The BBC SSO programme also showcases a dazzling array of new music from six of MacMillan’s younger colleagues, all nurtured through his visionary Cumnock Tryst festival. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, MacMillan has long championed works by his contemporary composers across the globe while fostering the next generation through mentorship, commissioning, and creative support.
Remarkably, most of the featured composers here come from Ayrshire, a region more usually linked with deprivation than celebrated as a vibrant centre for contemporary music. All six have been mentored by MacMillan and extend his legacy by bringing their expertise into local schools, delivering workshops as part of the Tryst’s year-round community engagement. Together, they exemplify how a single cultural hub can inspire and cultivate a thriving creative ecosystem.
In March, MacMillan returns to the USA for a major residency in Minneapolis where he makes his conducting debut with the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra in two concerts which showcase several of his own works, Kiss on Wood for cello and orchestra and Woman of the Apocalypse, alongside music by Wagner, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff (28 and 29 March).
Celebrations continue in the state with a week-long festival of MacMillan’s choral music organised by choral luminary Philip Brunelle and Vocal Essence – one of the leading professional US choirs – and featuring a range of choirs from across the region. Among the highlights of the festival is the world premiere of a specially-commissioned new work Haec Dies, performed by the massed choirs of seven area churches in the majestic Cathedral of Saint Paul (4 April) and all-MacMillan programme from Vocal Essence itself – joined by University of Minnesota Singers and Orchestra among others – at the Ordway Concert Hall in Saint Paul. The programme features his Seven Last Words form the Cross and the US premiere of The Sun Danced (6 April).
Nicola Benedetti gives the London premiere of MacMillan’s “approachable, evocative and intriguing” (The Guardian) Violin Concerto No. 2 with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gianandrea Noseda in April. Written for and dedicated to Benedetti, the concerto premiered in Scotland in 2022 and now takes centre stage in two performances at London’s Barbican Centre and the Bristol Beacon (3 April and 5 April).
David Childs and the BBC National Orchestra give the world premiere of a new concerto for euphonium in Cardiff and Swansea in May. Entitled Where the Lugar meets the Glaisnock, referring to the two rivers that run through MacMillan’s hometown of Cumnock, the work has great personal significance to the composer. Dedicated to David Childs and in memory of MacMillan’s grandfather, George Loy, the work holds great personal significance. Loy, an Ayrshire coal miner who played euphonium in various colliery bands, was a formative influence on the young musician. He bought MacMillan’s first cornet and took him to band practices, fostering his early love for music and the mellow sound of the euphonium, which he combines here with strings. Macmillan himself conducts the premiere, alongside music by Holst, Vaughan Williams and Stravinsky (1 & 2 May).
During this period, several significant performances of MacMillan’s music are taking place. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Manfred Honeck, will perform Larghetto (13, 14 & 15 March), a piece also featured in Honeck’s program with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (27 & 28 February & 2 March. Tenebrae presents Miserere at London’s Wigmore Hall on 3 February, while the RIAS Kammerchor and Ensemble Resonanz will perform the Stabat Mater in Berlin on 21 March. The Auckland Philharmonic, led by Karl-Heinz Steffens, give the New Zealand premiere of the Concerto for Orchestra on 27 March, and David Hill conducts the National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin for the Irish premiere of the St John Passion (18 April). Finally, the Spanish National Choir and Orchestra, under Juanjo Mena, who gave the first performance of the work in the USA in 2023, presents the Spanish premiere of Timotheus, Bacchus and Cecilia—described by The Times as a “full-blooded celebration of the power of music” (25, 26 & 27 April).