APPLICATIONS FOR THE SUMMER-SCHOOL
ARE NOW CLOSED

The Cumnock Tryst is delighted to open applications for its first International Summer-School for Composers. Led by Tryst Founder and Artistic Director Sir James MacMillan and composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir, applications are open worldwide to anyone aged 18 – 30.

About The Cumnock Tryst

For a few autumn days each year, the East Ayrshire town of Cumnock becomes a meeting place for music. Founded by composer James MacMillan in the town where he grew up, The Cumnock Tryst brings some of the world's greatest musicians into local venues, churches and halls, and places the community’s creativity alongside them in a broad and joyful programme that inspires music makers and music lovers of all backgrounds and experience.

The Festival’s name, The Cumnock Tryst, was inspired by a piece of music James MacMillan wrote in the 1980s when he was still living in Ayrshire. This was a setting of William Soutar’s love poem, The Tryst. Tryst is an old Scots word which means a meeting place, or a romantic rendezvous. The town of Cumnock itself ties into this sense of coming together as its Gaelic name, comunn achadh, means place of the confluence, as the town sits where the Glaisnock River and the Lugar Water meet. For four packed days and nights The Cumnock Tryst is a meeting place for music-lovers. But it now also promotes a year round concert series and community engagement programme, bringing even more opportunities to experience the joy of live-music-making and the benefits of composition.

Course Structure

The course, which will be the first ever composition summer school directed by MacMillan, will run from Sunday 4 – Saturday 10 August 2024 at Dumfries House, Cumnock, Scotland.

The course will open with an evening introduction from James and Anna for all participants and the general public. They will discuss their own work and their approach to composition and encourage a dialogue with those attending. Successful applicants will then have the rare opportunity to work one-to-one with both James and Anna during formal lessons and informal consultation, hear about each other’s work and share their learning, all with a professional ensemble of the UK’s leading musicians on hand as the week progresses. The course will culminate in a public performance showcasing the composers’ work played by a professional ensemble consisting of string trio and contrabass/bass clarinet. The participants will also receive a recording of their work from the performance.

All participants will be asked to bring a partly completed work for Violin, Viola, Cello plus Contrabass clarinet or Bass Clarinet, four musicians in total. During the course, you will finish writing this work under the guidance of James and Anna and it will be a maximum of 5 minutes duration when completed.

Participants will be asked to bring their own manuscript, pencils or other writing materials and a laptop if required.

All participants will be given the opportunity to present their own compositional approach to the group, which could include recorded excerpts of their music.

The course will use English as its core language and it would be expected that all participants would have a working knowledge of English.

The Ensemble

Participants will benefit from four days working with a unique ensemble consisting of string trio (Violin – Gordon Bragg, Viola – Ruth Gibson, Cello – Christian Elliott) and Contrabass Clarinet/Bass Clarinet (Scott Lygate).

Application Process

To apply, please email the following three documents via WeTransfer link to:
hello@thecumnocktryst.com by 17:00 GMT on 23rd February 2024.

You must include:

·       Completed application form (available here)
·       The score of one piece that you have written in the last 12 months.
·       Proof of age. You must be over 18 to attend and under 30 at the time of application.

All documents must be accessible via WeTransfer link, and all three documents should be sent together. Guidance on creating a WeTransfer link can be found here.

Documents should be saved as:
Surname_Firstname ApplicationForm
Surname_Firstname Score
Surname_Firstname Proof of age

and sent with the email subject: Application Surname_Firstname

The International Summer School is open globally, to all composers over 18 and under 30 years at the time of application. Examples of proof of age could be a photograph of a driving licence, passport, birth certificate.

Eight composers will be selected to attend and all composers will be notified by 5th April 2024 as to whether their application has been successful. The Cumnock Tryst will not enter into any correspondence regarding the selection of composers.

Course Fee and Financial Assistance

The course costs £1975 including all tuition, accommodation and meals at Dumfries House, the performance and recording of your work, access to keyboards and printers if required. The fee would be payable by bank transfer by 24th June 2024. Instalments will be considered if required.

Any financial barriers to attendance would be discussed with successful applicants individually, as financial assistance will be available to those who can demonstrate a need for support. Please do not let the course fee prevent you from applying. However, successful applicants would be responsible for their own travel expenses. The Cumnock Tryst could not support travel to or from Cumnock, Scotland.

Sir James MacMillan

James MacMillan is the pre-eminent Scottish composer of his generation. He first attracted attention with the acclaimed BBC Proms premiere of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (1990). His percussion concerto Veni, Veni Emmanuel (1992) has received over 500 performances worldwide by orchestras including London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics and Cleveland Orchestra. Other major works include the cantata Seven Last Words from the Cross (1993), Quickening (1998) for soloists, children’s choir, mixed choir and orchestra, the operas Inès de Castro (2001) and The Sacrifice (2005-06), St John Passion (2007), St Luke Passion (2013) and Symphony No.5: ‘Le grand Inconnu’ (2018).

Recent highlights include MacMillan’s Stabat Mater for The Sixteen streamed from the Sistine Chapel and premieres of the 40-voice motet Vidi aquam, Christmas Oratorio streamed in 2021 by NTS Dutch Radio from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, and the anthem Who Shall Separate Us? commissioned for the funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. The annual Cumnock Tryst festival was founded by the composer in 2014 in his childhood town in Scotland.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s “seemingly boundless textural imagination” (The New York Times) and "riveting" (The Times) sound world has made her “a leading voice in contemporary music” (Guardian). Her music is composed as much by sounds and nuances as by harmonies and lyrical material – it is written as an ecosystem of sounds, where materials continuously grow in and out of each other, often inspired in an important way by nature and its many qualities, in particular structural ones, like proportion and flow.

Anna is currently based in Surrey, England. Composer-in-Residence with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra 2018-2023, she was in 2023 also in residence at the Aldeburgh Festival and the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. She holds a PhD from the University of California in San Diego.

About Dumfries House

Dumfries House is one of Britain’s most beautiful stately homes. Set in 2,000 acres of land, the stunning estate and 18th century house has an unrivalled collection of original furniture. Saved by the intervention of The King, then His Royal Highness, The Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay in 2007, Dumfries House combines the neoclassical architecture of Robert Adam with the furniture of Thomas Chippendale and leading 18th century Scottish cabinet makers.

The estate, in East Ayrshire, is the headquarters of the charity The King’s Foundation, which runs its life-changing education programmes and health and wellbeing initiatives there and is responsible for opening Dumfries House itself to the public. Each year, more than 20,000 visit the house, an estimated 140,000 people enjoy free-of-charge the surrounding estate, and more than 10,000 students of all ages engage in The King’s Foundation’s education programmes.

Meals are prepared by their team of Chefs and served family-style three times a day in the communal dining area of the Residential Centre. All dietary requirements will be catered for. There is a fridge, microwave and hot water tap in the dining area for residents’ use. Where possible the Chefs aim to use seasonal ingredients and vegetables grown on the estate.

All participants will be offered their own private room with shared bathroom and shower facilities at the Residential Centre on the Dumfries House estate. Whilst each composer will have their own private room, the rooms are bunk-bed style with multiple beds.

The Ensemble

Gordon Bragg (violin)

Gordon Bragg has an extremely diverse musical life as a violinist, conductor and pianist, performing regularly throughout Scotland and the UK. Gordon is Sub-principal Second Violin of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, performing across the UK and touring worldwide. Highlights with the orchestra include touring with Marie João Pires, performances with Emmanuel Krivine, and working with current Principal Conductor, Maxim Emelyanychev. Gordon has also recently conducted the SCO for their Digital Season and Family Concerts.

Ruth Gibson (viola)

Irish violist Ruth Gibson is an expressive artist who’s freedom and malleability show itself in her great range of collaborations. As an internationally recognised chamber musician and soloist she has appeared at the world's leading concert halls, including Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Centre, Het Concertgebouw, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Berlin Konzerthaus.  Alongside the Castalian Quartet, she is Principal Violist with Aurora orchestra interpreting great orchestral repertoire from memory; from Beethoven to Berlioz.