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The Music of James MacMillan

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Scotland’s most celebrated composer conducts this choral concert featuring his own Seven Last Words from the Cross.

Soundstreams is thrilled to welcome Scottish composer and conductor Sir James MacMillan to Toronto for this choral concert. Emotionally potent, rhythmically thrilling, and richly reflective of its creator’s Catholic faith, Celtic cultural roots, and outspoken political conscience, MacMillan’s choral music has won international critical and popular acclaim.

In this choral concert, MacMillan himself conducts Choir 21 and the Virtuoso String Orchestra in a program at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre comprising Canadian works, selected motets by J.S. Bach, and his own 1993 cantata Seven Last Words from the Cross. Combining dramatic narrative with spiritual meditation, this spellbinding sequence of seven adagio movements, inspired by the four gospel accounts of the Crucifixion, is justly regarded as one of his masterpieces.

Watch a greeting from James MacMillan below!

Travel for James MacMillan is generously supported by the Scottish Government and the British Council.

Pre-Concert Chat – 7:00 pm

Arrive early for a free pre-concert chat with Sir James MacMillan hosted by Artistic Director Lawrence Cherney.

Repertoire

Watch the videos below to get a sense of Seven Last Words from the Cross, and to hear MacMillan speaking about his work.