Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited

295 Regent Street London W1B 2JH

Telephone 020-7580 2060 Fax 020-7637 3490 14 February 2003: for immediate release Website www.boosey.com

MacMillan’s Veni, Veni Emmanuel: 300th performance Veni, Veni, Emmanuel On 25 March James MacMillan’s Veni, Veni, Emmanuel reaches (300th performance) a historic landmark with its 300th performance since premiere in 1992. The concert at Symphony Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall in Birmingham features Colin Currie as soloist and the City of Birmingham 25 March 2003, 7.30 pm Symphony Orchestra conducted by . The programme is repeated on 29 March.

...300 worldwide Veni, Veni, Emmanuel is the most frequently performed concerto composed in the performances 1990s. MacMillan wrote it for the virtuoso talents of Evelyn Glennie, and she has with leading percussionists programmed the work 188 times, while Colin Currie has given 42 performances heading and conductors... the 21 other percussionists who have taken it into their repertoire. The concerto has attracted leading conductors including Saraste, Slatkin, Andrew Davis, Alsop, Eschenbach, Pappano, Neeme Järvi, Maksymiuk, Robertson, Iona Brown and the composer, and has been recorded by Glennie on BMG (09026 61916) and by Currie on Naxos (8.554167).

A Deep but Dazzling Darkness opens LSO’s St Luke’s centre

A Deep but Dazzling James MacMillan’s new violin concerto with ensemble, A Deep but Dazzling Darkness, Darkness is premiered on 27 March, as a highlight of the opening events at the London Symphony (world premiere) Orchestra’s new St Luke’s centre. Afternoon and evening concerts before invited St Luke's Centre, London audiences feature violinist Gordan Nikolitch and members of the London Symphony 27 March 2003, 7.00 pm Orchestra conducted by the composer. The work was co-commissioned by the (performance with invited LSO and the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival, which presents the US premiere on press) 11 August with Chantal Juillet as soloist with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

...compassionate role of The 25-minute new work offers contrasts of light and shade, celebration and foreboding, music in troubled times... inspired by the trials of Job, the patron saint of music in medieval times. Job was often depicted as being comforted by musicians, and MacMillan’s score recreates chamber groupings as seen on woodcuts of the period, as well as redeploying musical references from the Book of Job. A martial refrain runs through the work, provided by the L’Homme Armé theme, while vocal verses heard on tape summon the “Sad saint of all musicians” to bring compassion and light in dark and troubled times.

Anthem for enthronement of Rowan Williams in Canterbury

To My Successor An anthem by James MacMillan has been commissioned for the enthronement ceremony (world premiere) of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, on 27 February in Canterbury enthronement ceremony for Cathedral. The short choral work, To My Successor, sets texts by George Herbert Archbishop Rowan Williams, accompanied by a series of Alleluias. MacMillan, Rowan Williams and poet Michael Canterbury Cathedral Symmons Roberts worked together on a Theology through the Arts programme, leading 27 February 2003, 3.00 pm to the creation of Parthenogenesis in 2000, a music theatre work exploring the issues (BBC2 TV and Radio 4) surrounding human cloning. Parthenogenesis received its German stage premiere in Magdeburg in January, and its US premiere takes place in Los Angeles on 24 February.

For further information on MacMillan visit www.boosey.com/macmillan or contact: David Allenby (Publicist): tel +44 (0)20 7291 7210, email [email protected] Muireann Smyth (Publicity Assistant): tel +44 (0)20 7291 7226, [email protected]