Stuart MacRae (born 12 August 1976) is a Scottish composer and academic whose work spans contemporary classical music, modern opera, and large ensemble works. He received national commissions in his early twenties from the BBC and the London Sinfonietta, later serving as the Composer-in-Association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. MacRae has established a long-standing creative partnership with librettist Louise Welsh, resulting in operas such as Ghost Patrol, which won the 2013 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Opera—and Anthropocene (2019) for Scottish Opera. He holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and serves on the senior faculty of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as a Lecturer in Composition.
Contents
Career
Education and early work
Stuart MacRae was born in Inverness, Scotland. He studied music at Durham University under Philip Cashian and Michael Zev Gordon, and subsequently pursued postgraduate studies under Simon Bainbridge and Robert Saxton at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. By his mid-twenties, MacRae began receiving commissions from national ensembles including the BBC and the London Sinfonietta, and was appointed Composer-in-Association with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. MacRae's compositional style draws on various strands of European modernism, citing the works of Igor Stravinsky, Elliott Carter, Iannis Xenakis, Harrison Birtwistle, and Peter Maxwell Davies as influences.
Academia and opera
Following his early symphonic successes, MacRae expanded his career into advanced research and higher education. He pursued further academic research at the University of Edinburgh, completing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in musical composition under the supervision of composer Peter Nelson. MacRae subsequently joined the senior faculty at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) in Glasgow, where he serves as a Lecturer in Composition.
Alongside his institutional duties, MacRae established a long-standing creative partnership with the Scottish novelist and librettist Louise Welsh, shifting a significant portion of his creative output toward contemporary opera. In 2012, they co-created Ghost Patrol, a chamber opera co-commissioned by Scottish Opera and Music Theatre Wales. The production received critical acclaim, winning the 2013 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Opera and earning a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.
MacRae and Welsh continued their theatrical collaborations with The Devil Inside (2016)—a contemporary adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's short story "The Bottle Imp", which toured both the UK and North America—and the full-length Arctic expedition thriller Anthropocene (2019), premiered by Scottish Opera. From 2017 to 2022, MacRae served as the Composer in Association for the Lammermuir Festival, culminating in the world premiere of his large-scale Prometheus Symphony (2019). He was also selected as one of the inaugural foundation cohorts for the UK's Music Patron digital patronage initiative, focusing on how contemporary classical works are commissioned and funded.
List of compositions
Operas and stage works
The Assassin Tree (2006): chamber opera in three acts, libretto by Simon Armitage; co-commissioned by Edinburgh International Festival and The Royal Opera House (now Royal Ballet and Opera)
Echo and Narcissus (2006; dance opera) - libretto by Edward Kemp, choreography by Cathy Marston; commissioned by The Royal Opera House (now Royal Ballet and Opera)
Remembrance Day (2008): short chamber opera in one act, libretto by Louise Welsh; commissioned by Scottish Opera
Ghost Patrol (2012): chamber opera in one act, libretto by Louise Welsh; co-commissioned by Scottish Opera and Music Theatre Wales
The Devil Inside (2016) chamber opera in two acts, libretto by Louise Welsh; co-commissioned by Scottish Opera and Music Theatre Wales
Anthropocene (2019) full-scale opera in three acts, libretto by Louise Welsh; premiered by Scottish Opera.
Orchestral and large ensemble
Landscape and the Mind: Distance, Refuge (1997) for orchestra
Violin Concerto (2001)
Ancrene Wisse (2002) for choir and orchestra
Hamartia (2003) for cello and string ensemble
Birches (2007) for chamber orchestra
Gaudete (2008) for soprano and orchestra)
Earth (2010) for orchestra
Prometheus Symphony (2019) with texts by Aeschylus and Goethe, for soprano, bass-baritone soloists, and orchestra), premiered at the Lammermuir Festival.
Chamber and instrumental
The Witch's Kiss (1997) for chamber ensemble
Motus (2003) for chamber ensemble
Parable (2013) for baritone and chamber ensemble, text by Wilfred Owen
Ixion (2014) for chamber ensemble
Cantata (2016), written for the Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Piano Sonata No. 2 (2016), dedicated to pianist Simon Smith
Sunrises (2017) for piano trio, written for the Gould Piano Trio.
I Am Prometheus (2018) for tenor and chamber ensemble, text by the composer
Ursa Minor (2020) for chamber ensemble
The Captive (2022) for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble, text by Emily Brontë
Kingdoms (2022; tenor and piano), text by Chinwe D. John
Five Stevenson Songs (2024) for tenor and piano, text by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Awards and nominations
2013 – Winner, South Bank Sky Arts Award for Opera (for Ghost Patrol)
2013 – Shortlisted, Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (for Ghost Patrol)
2020 – Winner, Scottish Awards for New Music for Large Scale New Work (for Anthropocene)
2020 – Nominated, Ivors Composer Awards for Chamber Orchestral (for Prometheus Symphony)
Selected recordings
The compositions of Stuart MacRae have been featured on several commercial releases and profile albums: