The road sign into Cumnock announces “home of Keir Hardie”, the Labour party founder after whom the current leader was named. One day it should read “home of James MacMillan”, the composer of world-class standing who grew up in the East Ayrshire town and has never abandoned his roots. The collieries and blast furnaces that once disrupted the pastoral landscape have gone, grassed over but not forgotten. Impoverished but dignified, this region is still working towards a new, post-coal identity.
MacMillan’s public achievement – a knighthood, an anthem for the queen’s funeral, a mass for the pope, operas, concertos and as much success as most classical composers can hope to enjoy – is only the visible face of a person who devotes himself, wholeheartedly, to a different cause. His mission is regeneration through music. In 2014 he established the Cumnock Tryst, a four-day event uniting top-class professional musicians with local residents. Many events are free. Traditional Scottish music and ceilidh rub shoulders with the new and the ancient. A festival chorus flourishes. Local schools are involved. All forms of disability, a cause close to MacMillan’s heart for family reasons, are embraced into the fold.
