Stuart MacRae (composer)
Stuart MacRae is a Scottish composer.
Education and career
Stuart MacRae was born in Inverness, Scotland. He studied at Durham University with Philip Cashian and Michael Zev Gordon, and subsequently with Simon Bainbridge and Robert Saxton at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. By his mid-twenties he was writing astonishingly original and powerfully expressive works, and was receiving commissions from organisations such as the BBC and the London Sinfonietta as well as being appointed Composer-in-Association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Often inspired by aspects of nature and humans' relationship to it, MacRae's style draws on various strands of European modernism, including the music of Igor Stravinsky, Elliott Carter, Iannis Xenakis, Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies.Key works
The Witch's Kiss Violin Concerto Ancrene Wisse Motus Echo and Narcissus Birches Gaudete Earth 'Prometheus Symphony'''''Operas
The Assassin Tree Remembrance Day Ghost Patrol The Devil Inside 'Anthropocene'''''Awards
- 2013 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Opera for Ghost Patrol.
Career highlights
- 1993-7 – studies at Durham University, then Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
- 1996 – finalist in Lloyd's Bank Young Composers' workshop.
- 1997 – premiere of The Witch’s Kiss with BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Peter Maxwell Davies.
- 1999–2003 – Composer-in-Association of BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
- 2001 – MacRae portrait concert conducted by James MacMillan at Edinburgh International Festival.
- 2001 – Violin Concerto premiered at BBC Proms.
- 2006 – The Assassin Tree, MacRae's first opera premiered at Edinburgh International Festival.
- 2008 – Gaudete premiered at BBC Proms.
- 2012 – Ghost Patrol premiered by Scottish Opera and Music Theatre Wales.
Selected recordings
- – Black Box BBM1058
- – Delphian DCD 34009
- – Kairos 0012442KAI
- – London Sinfonietta SINF CD1-2006
- – NMC D115