Born: 16 July 1959 in Kilwinning, Scotland

James MacMillan rose to prominence following the BBC Proms premiere of The Confessions of Isobal Gowdie in 1990. His prolific output has since been globally performed and broadcast such as his first percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel which had its premiere in 1992 by Evelyn Glennie and has afterwards had nearly 500 performances worldwide.

In recent years, MacMillan conducted the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in the Dutch premiere of his Christmas Oratorio in 2021, had a major feature at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2019 with several world premieres of Macmillan’s symphonies and has been commissioned to write new music for the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra by Chief Conductor Kirill Karabits.