Commissioning and public performance of new Scottish Chamber Music
Sir John Blackwood McEwen (1868 - 1948) © National Portrait Gallery, London
The Edinburgh Quartet perform Alasdair Nicolson's Slanting Rain (2015)
Autograph score of McEwen's Quartet for strings in C minor, May 1928
The Ixion ensemble (2014), L to R: Duncan Strachan, Simon Smith and Yann Ghiro
The 2013 ensemble with composer Hafliði Hallgrímsson and conductor Bill Sweeney.
Renowned composer, teacher and University of Glasgow graduate Sir John Blackwood McEwen bequeathed the residue of his estate to the University to help promote the performance of Scottish chamber music.
Since the bequest, a rich catalogue of new Scottish music by the likes of Sally Beamish, James MacMillan, Thea Musgrave, Eddie McGuire, Helen Grime, John Maxwell Geddes, Ailie Robertson, John Lunn and John Purser has been commissioned and premiered at the University.
Award winning composer, arranger, accordionist and podcaster Aileen Sweeney is the recipient of the McEwen Commission for 2024 and her piece To the vanished Molendinar was premiered in the University Memorial Chapel by Sequioa duo, the creative partnership of Alice Rickards (violin) and Sonia Cromarty (cello).
An excerpt from the 2014 commission, Ixion by Stuart MacRae
Watch a scored excerpt of the 2014 commission — Stuart MacRae's Ixion
Listen to… the 2023 McEwen Commission - Colin Broom's The Big Freeze