We are delighted to welcome for this lecture Sir James MacMillan. MacMillan is one of today’s most successful composers. His musical language is flooded with influences from his Scottish heritage, Catholic faith, social conscience and close connection with Celtic folk music, blended with influences from Far Eastern, Scandinavian and Eastern European music.

MacMillan first became internationally recognised after the extraordinary success of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the BBC Proms in 1990. His prolific output has since been performed and broadcast around the world. His major works include percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, which has received close to 500 performances, a cello concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich and five symphonies.

MacMillan completed his PhD at Durham University in the 1980s and is Professor of Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St Andrews.

In this lecture, MacMillan will discuss the relation between Catholicism and music. He will talk about his own music, music of the past, music from previous centuries which has been employed in liturgy, and the religious traditions and heritage of Catholicism. But because Catholicism is a religion which has not shied away from the world, and has sometimes set out deliberately to engage with events and developments in culture, ethics, aesthetics, society and philosophy, he will also discuss politics – politics of the past, the present and indeed the future.

Responses will be offered by:

• Prof. Bennett Zon (Professor of Music at Durham University, and co-founder and Director of the International Network for Music Theology)
• Dr George Corbett (Senior Lecturer in Theology and the Arts at the University of St Andrews)

About Us

This event is co-hosted by:

• The Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University
• The Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts at the University of St Andrews

It is part of the Ushaw Lecture Series, which celebrates the cultural and research significance of the remarkable bibliographical, archival and material-cultural collections of the Durham Residential Research Library, and the wider history of which they are expressions.

Image above © Genesis Foundation 2018. Photo: Adrian Myers.