Sir James MacMillan has been awarded the Academy Fellowship, the highest honour bestowed by the Ivors Academy. The Fellowship will be awarded at the Barbican on 15 March, where MacMillan will conduct the UK premiere of his work Fiat Lux with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, soprano Mary Bevan and baritone Roderick Williams.
MacMillan has been recognised of his 'compositional excellence, immense impact and enduring legacy in the world of music creation'. With a catalogue of over 200 works to his name, he founded his own music festival, The Cumnock Tryst, in Scotland in 2014, and was knighted in 2015 for services to music. He has been honoured several times by The Ivors Academy, winning an Ivor Novello Award in 2007 and two British Composer Awards (now known as The Ivors Classical Awards) in 2008 and 2013.
'It is a great delight and honour to be welcomed as a new Fellow of the Ivors Academy,' said MacMillan. 'It is humbling to read the list of Fellows and I will take this opportunity to rededicate my energies to the power of music and its mysterious ability to transform lives.'
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The Ivors Academy Fellowships recognise 'excellence and impact in the art and craft of music creation', and have been awarded to 25 musicians and composers since 2000. The current list of Fellows includes John Rutter, John Adams, Sir Malcolm Arnold, John Barry, Don Black, Pierre Boulez, Kate Bush, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Peter Gabriel, Sir Barry Gibb, Sir Elton John, Annie Lennox, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Tim Rice, Judith Weir and Sting.
Ivor Novello Awards will be presented at two ceremonies later this year: The Ivors, at the Grosvenor House on 23 May, celebrates songwriting and screen composing; The Ivors Classical Awards at BFI Southbank on 12 November, recognises contemporary composing for classical music and sound art. Entries for The Ivors Classical Awards open in June.
Photo © Marc Marnie