STUART MACRAE
STUART MACRAE
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Stuart MacRae composer

Stuart MacRae composerStuart MacRae composerStuart MacRae composer

Composer of contemporary opera, orchestral, chamber and vocal music

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new album - now available

A collection of my chamber music from the last 25 years

***** The Scotsman (Ken Walton): 

"...emotive insight and confident linguistic maturity...from the gestural simplicity of Tol-Pedn to the effervescent wonderment of Ursa Minor."


***** BBC Music Magazine (Michael Beek): 

"Stuart MacRae at his most searching...a keen dramatic sense – and a richly imaginative scoring which extends throughout, embracing tonality and microtones, swirling dissonance and static repose."


Gramophone (Guy Rickards): 

"intelligently constructed, sonically well-imagined music...MacRae's setting is desolate, and powerfully so."


I'm privileged to share this fantastic recording by Hebrides Ensemble of my chamber music, with music (much of it recorded for the first time) for a variety of instrumental and vocal combinations. 

Click on the pic for listening options, and click here to link to much more information about the piece, including Tim Rutherford-Johnson's liner notes, production images by Will Coates-Gibson, and reviews. Supported by Creative Scotland.

Buy scores

Variation on caprice 24

Variation on Caprice 24 out on on Fenella Humphreys' new album

Fenella Humphreys' beautiful album of Caprices includes a wealth of new music , including a short 'Variation on Caprice 24' I wrote for her. Click the pic to link to the album and for much more...


...and buy the score here

Latest news

News

Performances coming up

Performances coming up

Anthropocene will receive a new production at Bielefeld Opera in 2023, with musical direction by Gregor Rot. The German premiere production opens on 15the April 2023 (see performances column for details).


NEW ALBUM OUT!

I'm very excited that on 25th March 2022, Delphian Records released Hebrides Ensemble's portrait album of my chamber music. This will feature music spanning the last 25 years, including a specially-commissioned new piece, Ursa Minor. 

Pre-save here


In addition, also on 25th March, Rubicon released Fenella Humphreys' album Caprices, with  new works from a huge spectrum of living composers, including my piece Variation on Caprice 24. 

Buy CD

Pre-add on Apple Music


MUSIC PATRON

I'm honoured to have been given the opportunity to be part of the first cohort of 10 composers in Sound and Music's new 'Music Patron' platform. This is a brand new way of supporting the work of composers directly with a regular donation. Find out more, and support me here.


Improvisations (I): Delicacy, incarnadine and prismatic  now available to buy and listen to on Bandcamp.com (some also available to stream or purchase on my website). 


Anthropocene has WON the Large Scale New Work category 

(sponsored by PRS for Music) in the Scottish Awards for New Music

Anthropocene was shortlisted in the World Premiere category in the International Opera Awards


ANTHROPOCENE

Anthropocene premieres on Operavision.eu

From 17th May until 16th November 2019

Scottish Opera premiered the latest opera by Stuart MacRae and Louise Welsh in January 2019. Set on a ship in an Arctic fjord, the opera is a mystery-thriller directed by Matthew Richardson with designs by Samal Blak.

'Icily resonant tale with a remorseless grip...' ★★★★ 

The Telegraph

 'Gripping music theatre.' ★★★★ The Times

https://www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/anthropocene/

CANCELLED due to Covid-19:

Sadly the new production of Anthropocene at Salzburger Landestheater scheduled for the 19/20 and 20/21 season, directed by Agnessa Nefjodov and conducted by Leslie Suganandarajah, has had to be postponed due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Hopefully it will be rescheduled in 2024.



Performances coming up

Performances coming up

Performances coming up

Dark Liquid (WP)

synapse (WP)

Huw Morgan (piano)

St. Stephen's Church, Bristol

25 June, 11am

Free admission


Variation on Caprice 24

Fenella Humphreys (violin)

Up Close and Musical

Fidelio Orchestra Cafe, London

25 June, 3.30pm

Info and tickets


Anthropocene (excerpt)

Bielefeld Opera

Theater Bielefeld, Rudolf-Oetker-Halle

3 September, 7.30pm


Anthropocene (German Premiere)

Bielefeld Opera

Stadttheater Bielefeld

15 / 25 / 30 April 2023

5 / 19 May 2023

21 June 2023

Further details

Past performances

Performances coming up

Past performances

The Lif of this world 

Jessica Summers (soprano) 

Aylesbury Lunchtime Music, St Mary’s Church 

23 June, 12.45pm 


elided compressed (WP) for voice and electronics

Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo-soprano)

Britten Studio, Snape Maltings

8 June 2022, 10pm Details and tickets

The Lif of this World

Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo-soprano) and Brett Dean (viola)

St. Michael and All Angels, Spennithorne

Swaledale Festival

11 June 2022, 4pm

Details and tickets


Earth ever green the ways (WP of soprano version) 

Stephanie Lamprea (soprano) 

Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds 22 March 2022 Artefact Stirchley, Birmingham 23 March 2022 Unit 44, Dublin 25 March 2022


Sonata for guitar "Macbeth"  (WP) 

Sasha Savaloni (guitar)

Holy Sepulchre London 

18th March 2022, 1.10pm 

Commission supported by RVW Trust and Hope Scott Trust


Earth ever green the ways (WP) 

Lauren Macleod (mezzo-soprano) 

David Josefowitz Recital Hall 

Royal Academy of Music 

15 November 2021


Ultima Thule (WP) 

Octuble (tuba octet) 

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

26 November 2021


the ebb (WP)

Sequoia

Govan & Linthouse Parish Church, Glasgow

7 November 2021, 3.30pm

Details and tickets

University of Glasgow Concert Hall  11 November Music at St. Cyprian's, Lenzie 13 November Cowal Music Club, Dunoon 6 February 2022 

Isle of Coll Music Group, An Cridhe 19 March 2022 


Blessed are the Meek (WP)Rebecca Tavener (soprano) and Alan Tavener (organ)St. Columbkille's Church Rutherglen

1 November 2021

The Solemnity of All Saints, Mass 7pm https://www.stcolumbkille.org.uk/all-saints-and-all-souls-days/


The Brocken Spectre

Lapland Chamber Orchestra, cond. John Storgårds

Korundi, Rovaniemi, Finland

7 & 8 October 2021

Details


Birth-Rebirth

Trinity Orchestra (cond. John Andrews)

St. Edmund's Church, Northwood

2 October 2021

Details and tickets


Random acts of kindness V

Huw Morgan (organ)

'mainly slow organ music'

St Stephen's Church, Bristol

11th September 2021


Variation on Caprice 24 

Fenella Humphreys (violin)

Three Choirs Festival

29th July 2021, 10pm

Details


Further performances:

Presteigne Festival

26 & 28 August 2021

Details


The Lif of this World

Lotte Betts-Dean (mezzo-soprano)

Home Concert Club (online)

16th June 2021, 8pm


Further performances (with Michael Butten, guitar):Land Sea & Sky (filmed concerts)

St. Magnus Festival 

from 18th June 2021


Strathallan Suite (WP)

Strathallan School Music Scholars

online 18th June 2021


Variation on Caprice 24 

Fenella Humphreys (violin)

4.5-hour loop performance

view and donate here


MOBOFCROWS

Sarah Watts (contrabass clarinet)

Sound Festival, Aberdeen

24th October 2020, 8pm

View the concert here


draw the veil  (WP)

Rolf Hind (piano)

King's Place, London

7th October 2020, 6.30pm


Variation on Caprice 24 (WP)

Fenella Humphreys (violin)

Fidelio Orchestra Cafe

5th March 2020 7.00pm

https://fideliorchestra.art/whats-on/fenella-humphreys-and-louise-mcmonagie

"A brilliant new work that makes you think...spine tingling opera"

Opera Britannia

One of the most exciting and expressive composers working today, Stuart MacRae is equally at home writing opera, orchestral music, chamber music and music for choirs. Dramatic and surprising, his music takes listeners on a journey through perceptions of nature, striking imagery and the landscape of human emotion.


"Put out the flags, because it’s not often one can hail a new opera that integrates a musically taut score into a theatrically effective narrative. An even rarer cause for rejoicing is a new opera during which one can close one’s eyes and still hear the text and feel the drama. So it’s respect all round for The Devil Inside"

The Telegraph

About Stuart

Stuart is sitting on a chair in a rehearsal room. It is dark but there are coloured lightbulbs.

Biography

Born in Inverness in 1976, Stuart MacRae has established himself as one of the most distinctive of contemporary composers, writing music of elemental power and emotional subtlety. His works include a Violin Concerto (2001), Hamartia for cello and ensemble (2004), and Gaudete for soprano and orchestra (2008), all of which have been performed at the BBC Proms. Works for the stage include the dance-opera Echo and Narcissus (2007) and the opera Ghost Patrol (2012), a collaboration with writer Louise Welsh for Scottish Opera and Music Theatre Wales, which won the 2013 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Opera and was shortlisted for an Olivier Award.  

Stuart’s music has been performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Edinburgh International Festival, and by ensembles including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, Hebrides Ensemble, BCMG and London Sinfonietta, as well as numerous orchestras.   Stuart was Composer in Association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra from 1999 to 2003. He was resident composer at the Spannungen Kammermusikfest in Heimbach, Germany in 2003, and Edinburgh Festival Creative Fellow at the University of Edinburgh from 2005 to 2006. From 2006 to 2007 he was a resident composer at Internationales Künstlerhaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg, Germany.   

Recent projects include the opera The Devil Inside, written for Music Theatre Wales and Scottish Opera, Cantata, for the Choir of Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, and a series of works based on the Prometheus myth for the Lammermuir Festival.

Listen

Please visit my Soundcloud

Spotify 

Apple Music

Bandcamp


Contact

Represented worldwide by Rayfield Allied

Contact ralph.blackbourn@rayfieldallied.com

stucamac@gmail.com

Stuart MacRae's page at Novello & Co Ltd. (works up to 2012)

http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/short-bio/974


Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/stuca

Photo credits: Loudon MacRae Photography (photos of Stuart)

Bill Cooper (production photo of Ben McAteer, Steven Page and Rachel Kelly in The Devil Inside)

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