Stuart MacRae
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stuartmacrae.bsky.social
Stuart MacRae
@stuartmacrae.bsky.social
Composer. Operas (Anthropocene/The Devil Inside)
orchestral | chamber | vocal
http://linktr.ee/stuartmacrae
Support and more via Music Patron: https://musicpatron.com/r/c/85
Very excited indeed to be working with mezzo Beth Taylor on a new piece next year!
Receiving RPS Thea Musgrave Composition Grants for composer-performer partnership are: David Gorton and Carla Rees, Emma-Ruth Richards and Jennifer France, Robert Laidlow and Peter Brathwaite, Samantha Fernando and Fretwork, @stuartmacrae.bsky.social and Beth Taylor. (2/4)
October 30, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Reposted by Stuart MacRae
Thank you @francisrouthtrust.bsky.social for supporting our new project on John Rae, which will include new works by @stuartmacrae.bsky.social and Ailie Robertson, as well as 2 Nordic composers. Morenews coming very soon!
October 23, 2025 at 4:06 PM
I love Max's music but R3 are playing this piece waaaay too much recently.
BBC Radio 3
In Tune

Now Playing
Peter Maxwell Davies & Peter Maxwell Davies
Farewell to Stromness (The Yellow Cake Revue)
September 26, 2025 at 5:53 PM
If you're not smiling/crying/both by the end of this I don't know what to tell you (and if you haven't seen or heard this before - you're welcome!) youtu.be/Ypd1YGW5Huw?...
Oscar Peterson - Sweet Georgia Brown
YouTube video by Lucas Dann
youtu.be
September 19, 2025 at 5:30 PM
The more I hear from Peter Kyle, the less I want to. First in the pockets of the AI industry (and hang the arts and creative industries), now undermining the value of higher education with materialistic bromides about entrepreneurship and business.
September 19, 2025 at 12:00 PM
I'm finding it really baffling that so much of the news is about the death of someone in the US I had literally never heard of until today. The more I hear about him, the less I want to.
September 11, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Berg's harmony (and particularly in Lulu) makes me scrunch up my face in a way no other music can - the precise and logical beauty of his unresolving voice-leading, his exquisite voicing and the drama of his timing are almost too much to bear - in the best possible way.
September 8, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Reposted by Stuart MacRae
I’m extremely medieval peasant brained about AI. Do not interact with the demon box.
June 14, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Previously, when I said 'hey google' then 'navigate home', my phone would instantly bring up the best route and start it. Now an AI assistant tells me it has found a route & asks if I want to ask anything else, before opening maps, adding 15 secs to the process. Is this meant to be an improvement?
May 24, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Composing is so much easier and more satisfying than 'being a composer' 🤔
May 21, 2025 at 4:43 PM
As someone who works in the arts (is that the same as an arts professional?🤔) this article seems to be a load of gobbledygook. No idea what they are trying to say.
April 22, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Stuart MacRae
The UK’s “notoriously fragmented” creative industries sector could be “rapidly eroded” unless it rethinks its approach to public funding, according to a new report.
‘Fragmented’ creative sector must embrace collaboration in face of ‘global megatrends’ - Arts Professional
The UK’s “notoriously fragmented" creative industries sector could be "rapidly eroded" unless it rethinks its approach to public funding, according to a new report. The Next Act: A Vision for the...
buff.ly
April 22, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Watching Lost for the 1st time - very impressed with Michael Giacchino's dark, eerie and mostly acoustic score, and the plotting is gripping. A few flaws though - some dodgy acting and lighting that wouldn't pass muster these days.
April 17, 2025 at 11:05 PM
This looks like a very good opportunity for composers to work with professional harpists www.poppyharp.com/composers-pr...
Composers Project
formally the 'Future Blend Project'
www.poppyharp.com
March 27, 2025 at 2:26 PM
I'm hearing reports that the Whitehouse Signal group's encryption was compromised by an incorrectly transposed hexachordal inversion - is this true?
March 25, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Reposted by Stuart MacRae
If this piece were the overture to an opera, what would you expect the opera to be about? 🤔
(Performed by Dunedin Consort cond. John Butt, BBC Proms 2019)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=efV4...
Stuart MacRae : Courante (2019)
YouTube video by Béton Brut
www.youtube.com
March 17, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Worrying times across the whole of the arts and creative sector. The story of the sudden drying up of work is also very widespread among composers - a few manage to thrive in such times, giving the illusion of a vibrant sector, but it's very far from the truth.
NEW: Elizabeth Murdoch warns a “perfect storm” is hitting the British TV industry.

She says it could also lead to British stories disappearing from the small screen.

Big names now speaking out on the TV crisis:
UK TV industry hit by ‘perfect storm’, says Elisabeth Murdoch
Crisis within British television is leading to an exodus of production talent, media executive says
www.theguardian.com
March 18, 2025 at 8:36 AM
If this piece were the overture to an opera, what would you expect the opera to be about? 🤔
(Performed by Dunedin Consort cond. John Butt, BBC Proms 2019)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=efV4...
Stuart MacRae : Courante (2019)
YouTube video by Béton Brut
www.youtube.com
March 17, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Reposted by Stuart MacRae
Hi from gorgeous sunny Amsterdam! Tonight at Hear And Now Festival I’ll be singing 2 works w strings from my @stuartmacrae.bsky.social album + Andriessen’s ‘Een Lied van der Zee’ for solo voice. Vasks, Crumb + Strauss complete the gig. 8pm Vondelkerk
www.ticketkantoor.nl/shop/HearAnd...
HearAndNow Kamermuziekfestival 2025
Bestel kaarten voor HearAndNow Kamermuziekfestival 2025 Koop nu je tickets!
www.ticketkantoor.nl
March 8, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Reposted by Stuart MacRae
March 3, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Intensive composing day yesterday. I find I need to ignore all other work responsibilities, and then almost all the composing gets done in about 1/3 of the work days. The rest is planning, thinking, refining, editing - and of course the dreaded admin.
February 28, 2025 at 9:40 AM
Reposted by Stuart MacRae
Monday Motivation
February 24, 2025 at 1:38 PM
This photo made me wonder what sort of height Sibelius was, so I looked it up and he was exactly the same height as me (1.77m). For some reason I find this satisfying.
The beautiful tone poem En Saga (Satu) Op.9 was first performed on the 16th of February, 1893 in Helsinki. Sibelius conducted the @helsinginkaupunginorkesteri.fi
February 16, 2025 at 8:09 PM
I've been writing for voice without words a fair bit recently, which brings out particular ways of working - things are either more 'instrumental' or, conversely, rather simple, slow and restrained. But now I have written a few words to set, and much greater energy has come into the vocal lines...⚡
February 13, 2025 at 5:14 PM