James Dillon

born in Glasgow in 1950, he first became involved in music through playing in traditional Scottish pipe bands and rock groups. He studied music, acoustics and linguistics in London, but received no formal training in composition. His music has been featured at numerous major festivals including the iscm World Music Days, ‘Ars Musica’ in Brussels, the International Summer Courses in Darm-stadt, Donaueschinger Musiktage, the Edinburgh Festival, ‘Musica Nova’ in Glasgow, ‘Almeida’ and the bbc Proms in London, Festival d’Automne and ‘Présences’ in Paris, ‘Wien Modern’, the Venice Biennale), as well as those in Huddersfield (a major retrospective in 1995), Witten, Sydney and La Rochelle. His music has been recorded for nmc and Montaigne/Auvidis labels. Traumwerk Book 1 (1995) for two violins was awarded the 1997 Royal Philharmonic Society Award. Ensembles who have been closely associated with Dillon’s work include the Arditti Quartet, ‘Accroche-Note’, the bbc Symphony Or-chestra, bbc Singers, ‘Cikada’, Ensemble InterContemporain, the London Sinfonietta, the Nieuw Ensemble, Music Projects/London, the Oslo Sinfonietta, the Paragon Ensemble and Ensemble Recherche.

Selected works (since 1984): Le Rivage for wind quintet (1984), Diffra-ction for piccolo flute (1984), Windows and Canopies for 20-performer ensemble (1985), Birl for harpsichord (1986), Helle Nacht for orchestra (1987), Shrouded Mirrors for solo guitar (1988), l’ecran parfum for six violins and percussion (1988), La femme invisible for ensemble (1989), Introitus for strings, tape and live electronics (1990), L’oeuvre au noir for chamber ensemble and live electronics (1990), String Quartet No. 2 (1991), ignis noster for orchestra (1992), Siorram for solo viola (1992), Vernel Showers for solo violin and chamber ensemble (1992), L’évo-lution du vol for female voice and chamber ensemble (1993), Viriditas for 16 solo voices (1994), black/nebulae for two pianos (1995), Redemption for clarinet, violin and piano (1995), Blitzschlag for solo flute and orchestra (1996), Oceanos for vocal-instrumental ensemble and live electronics (1985–1996), Traumwerk for two violins (1996), Todesengel for clarinet and vibraphone (1996), The Book of Elements, vol. I for solo piano (1997), String Quartet No. 3 (1998), Eos for cello (1998).