BIOGRAPHIES of those involved in the Padre Pio's Prayer Evening

JAMES MACMILLAN, Composer

James MacMillan read music at Edinburgh University and took Doctoral studies in composition at Durham University with John Casken. After working as a lecturer at Manchester University, he returned to Scotland and settled in Glasgow. The successful premiere of Tryst at the 1990 St Magnus Festival led to his appointment as Affiliate Composer of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Between 1992 and 2002 he was Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Orchestra's Music of Today series of contemporary music concerts. MacMillan is internationally active as a conductor and in 2000 was appointed Composer/Conductor with the BBC Philharmonic. He was awarded a CBE in January 2004.

In addition to The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, which launched MacMillan's international career at the BBC Proms in 1990, his orchestral output includes the percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, premiered by Evelyn Glennie in 1992 and which has since received over 350 performances and has been programmed by leading international orchestras and conductors including the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Slatkin, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Andrew Davis, and the Detroit Symphony under Neeme Järvi. MacMillan's music has been programmed extensively at international music festivals, including the Edinburgh Festival in 1993, the Bergen Festival in 1997, the South Bank Centre's 1997 Raising Sparks festival in London, the Queensland Biennial in 1999, and the BBC Barbican Composer Weekend in 2005. A documentary film portrait of MacMillan by Robert Bee was screened on ITV's South Bank Show in 2003.
Works by MacMillan also include Seven Last Words from the Cross for chorus and string orchestra, screened on BBC TV during Holy Week 1994, Inés de Castro, premiered by Scottish Opera and toured to Porto in 2001, a triptych of orchestral works commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra: The World's Ransoming, a Cello Concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich, and Symphony: 'Vigil' premiered under the baton of Rostropovich in 1997, and Quickening for The Hilliard Ensemble, chorus and orchestra, co-commissioned by the BBC Proms and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

In terms of recordings, the Koch Schwann disc of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie and Tryst won the 1993 Gramophone Contemporary Music Record of the Year Award, and the BMG recording of Veni, Veni, Emmanuel won the 1993 Classic CD Award for Contemporary Music. MacMillan discs on the BIS label include the complete Triduum conducted by Osmo Vänskä, the clarinet concerto Ninian and the trumpet concerto Epiclesis. A new MacMillan series on Chandos with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by the composer includes The Berserking, The Birds of Rhiannon and Symphony No.3: 'Silence' which won a Classical Brit award in 2006. Other acclaimed recordings include Mass and Seven Last Words from the Cross on Hyperion and discs on the Naxos, Black Box and Linn labels.
Recent MacMillan works include Piano Concerto No.2 first performed with choreography by Christopher Wheeldon at New York City Ballet, A Scotch Bestiary commissioned to inaugurate the new organ at Disney Hall with soloist Wayne Marshall and the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, and The Sacrifice premiered and toured by Welsh National Opera in 2007. His recent St John Passion was co-commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Radio Choir. Future premieres include new works for the Takács Quartet and Minnesota Orchestra.

James MacMillan is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes.

ROXANNA PANUFNIK, Composer

Since studying composition at the Royal Academy of Music, Roxanna Panufnik has since written a wide range of pieces - opera, ballet, music theatre, choral works, chamber compositions and music for film and television which are regularly performed all over the world.

Among her most widely given works are Westminster Mass, also commissioned by the Genesis Foundation, for Westminster Cathedral Choir on the occasion of Cardinal Hume's 75th birthday; The Music Programme, an opera for Polish National Opera's millennium season which received its UK premiere at the BOC Covent Garden Festival; and settings for solo voices and orchestra of Vikram Seth's Beastly Tales - the first of which was commissioned by the BBC for Patricia Rozario and City of London Sinfonia.

Other recent compositions include Roxanna's critically acclaimed harp concerto Powers & Dominions; Letters from Burma for oboist Douglas Boyd and the Vellinger String Quartet; Leda, a ballet for English National Ballet and Wratislavia Cantans and Abraham - a violin concerto commissioned by Savannah Music Festival for Daniel Hope, incorporating Christian, Islamic and Jewish music.

Roxanna's compositions have been recorded by many companies including Warner Classics and EMI Classics.
2008/9 sees no less than 14 premieres in five different countries, including artists such as the Mobius Ensemble; Tasmin Little & the Orchestra of the Swan; The Sixteen; the Dante Quartet & the choir of King's College Cambridge and the Staatsorchester Stuttgart under Manfred Honeck.

JESSICA DUCHEN, Lyricist for Roxanna Panufnik

Jessica Duchen divides her time between writing fiction, theatrical scripts, biography and journalism, the latter principally for The Independent.  She particularly enjoys creative collaborations that combine literature and music in new and exciting ways.  Her third novel, Hungarian Dances, has just been published by Hodder & Stoughton and her one-act play A Walk Through the End of Time, exploring Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, was premiered at the Consonances Festival, St Nazaire, France, last autumn.  She adapted Stephen Macklow-Smith’s Italian into English translation of Padre Pio’s prayer Stay With Me for Roxanna Panufnik to set to music.

WILL TODD, Composer

Will Todd has been playing the piano since he was three and composing since he was seven years old.  His output includes opera, musicals, oratorio, orchestral and religious works, and his music has been performed throughout the UK, in Europe and in the USA.

Notable works include the opera The Blackened Man which won second prize in the 2002 International Verdi Opera Competition, and was subsequently staged at the 2004 Buxton Festival; the oratorio Saint Cuthbert which has been performed many times and recorded by the Hallé Orchestra; music theatre work The Screams of Kitty Genovese, produced most recently at the New York Music Theater Festival; and the cantata The Burning Road - written to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Jarrow March.  His jazz mass setting, Mass in Blue has been performed more than twenty times since its 2003 premiere, as well featuring on two commercial recordings - most recently by the Vasari Singers for Signum Records.

Recent performances include Among Angels - commissioned by the Genesis Foundation and premiered by The Sixteen in Salzburg in March 2006; Whirlwind - a major new opera for Streetwise Opera, premiered recently at The Sage Gateshead; and Sweetness and Badness - an opera for WNO Max which toured the UK in 2006.  He is currently working on a new music theatre project within the OperaGenesis programme at ROH2 and writing a clarinet concerto for the acclaimed clarinettist Emma Johnson. Future commissions include a requiem for soprano, choir and guitar.

BEN DUNWELL, Lyricist for Will Todd

Born in Buckinghamshire in 1969, Ben read English at Bristol University. During his time there he toured theatre to the Edinburgh Fringe, four Canadian fringe Festivals, and widely across the West Country.
It was at Bristol that he met Will Todd, and a long-standing collaboration was born. Since then they have written works for the stage and concert platform, large and small.

Ben is also a director of the Tudor Trust, a grant-making charity addressing a national remit. He lives in Devon.

RECENT THEATRE WORKS WITH WILL TODD
Calling Manila (in development – 07/08),
Whirlwind (06), The Blackened Man (04)

RECENT CONCERT WORKS WITH WILL TODD
Among Angels (06), Gala and Gloria (05)

RECENT WORKS OUTSIDE THE COLLABORATION
Cup of Tears (08) with James Woodhall
Hell’s Angels (01) with Paul Patterson

THE REVEREND BROTHER FATHER MARK, OFM, Cap, Narrator for the evening

Father Mark Turnham Elvins is the Warden of Greyfriars, Oxford.

He was born in 1939, the son of the Reverend Elvins, a Rector of Dover Castle. Over the years Father Mark has studied at Dover College, St Stephen’s House in Oxford, Beda College and the Gregorian University in Rome and Heythrop College, the Specialist Philosophy and Theology College of the University of London, from where he graduated as a Master of Arts.

He began his professional career by passing into the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, but reverted to the Territorial Army where he served with The Honorary Artillery Company and became a Captain with the Royal Army Chaplains’ Department. From 1961 he was Assistant Manager at St James’s Gallery in Jermyn Street until his appointment as Assistant Editor of Debrett' Peerage. Then between 1965 and 1973 Father Mark was a student of theology at Oxford and Rome.

Following his ordination in 1973 at Arundel Cathedral, Father Mark became Assistant Curate and Chantry Priest to The Duke of Norfolk. His next appointment was at St Mary Magdalen’s in Brighton (1980-1990). From 1985-1986 he was Chaplain to the Master of the Worshipful Company of Scrivenors. Father Mark then became Parish Priest at Henfield (1990-1993).

Father Mark is notable for his philanthropic commitment and compassion. These have led to involvement with several charities. He is the founder of the Simon House for homeless in Oxford (1967), the St Thomas Fund for the Homeless in Brighton (1980), and the Becket Homes for the homeless in Canterbury (1997).

Father Mark is a keen author whose recent titles include: The Church’s Response to the Homeless, Cardinals and Heraldry, Catholic Trivia, Towards a People’s Liturgy, Gospel Chivalry and A Eucharistic Vision.

In 1999, Father Mark was professed as a friar of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. He is also Chaplain of Magistral Grace of the Order of Malta.