Born in Inverness in 1976, Stuart MacRae has established himself as one of the most distinctive composers working today, writing music of elemental power and emotional subtlety. Equally at home writing opera, orchestral music and chamber music, his works take listeners on a journey through perceptions of nature, striking imagery and the landscape of human emotion.
His numerous staged works range from “Echo and Narcissus”, a dance-opera premiered at Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 2007, through to 2015’s critically acclaimed “The Devil Inside” for Scottish Opera and Music Theatre Wales. “Ghost Patrol”, written in collaboration with writer Louise Welsh, won the 2013 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Opera and was shortlisted for an Olivier Award.
From 1999 – 2003 he was Composer-in- Association at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and his works have been performed throughout Europe with groups including the Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Hungarian Radio Symphony, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Scottish Ensemble, Hebrides Ensemble and Britten Sinfonia, by conductors including Martyn Brabbins, Oliver Knussen, Jan-Latham Koenig, Susanna Malkki, Stuart Stratford, David Robertson, Clark Rundell, Donald Runnicles, John Storgårds and Ilan Volkov.
A number of his works have been performed at the Edinburgh International Festival and BBC Proms, including his 2001 “Violin Concerto” which had its world premiere at the BBC Proms and has been performed by Tasmin Little, Christian Tetzlaff and Tedi Papavrami.
His music has been recorded for NMC, Black Box, Kairos, Meridian, Divine Art Records and extensively on Delphian Records, who in 2022 released Ursa Minor: Chamber Music of Stuart MacRae, a retrospective with Hebrides Ensemble which was shortlisted for a Scottish Award for New Music. More recently another solo album, “Earth, thy cold is keen” has been released on the Delphian label, garnering 5-star reviews: “enchanting…gripping unpredictability” (“Scotsman”).
Stuart was Composer in Association at the Lammermuir Festival from 2017 to 2019, with premieres of “Sunrises” (2017) for the Gould Piano Trio, “I am Prometheus” (2018), for tenor Joshua Ellicott and Hebrides Ensemble, and “Prometheus Symphony” (2019) performed by Jennifer France, Paul Carey Jones and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. A commission for the Dunedin Consort, written as a prelude to Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, was premiered at the BBC Proms in 2019.
His newest opera, “Anthropocene”, premiered in February 2019 with Scottish Opera to a wealth of 4- and 5- star reviews from the press. Described as “enthralling” (“Daily Telegraph”), “evocative” (“The Times”) and “a wonder of skillful orchestration” (“The Guardian”), Anthropocene, which is MacRae’s fourth collaboration with librettist Louise Welsh, toured to Theatre Royal Glasgow, King’s Theatre Edinburgh, and the Hackney Empire in London. “Anthropocene” received a new production in 2023 by Bielefeld Opera for the work’s continental European premiere, followed by a further new production at Salzburger Landestheater in 2024. It was nominated for a 2020 International Opera Award for Best New Work and won the Large Scale Composition Award at the Scottish Awards for New Music 2020.

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