James McCarthy (b1979) is a composer of opera, concert music, ballet music and music for theatre. He studied composition at Royal Holloway,University of London, with Simon Holt, Alasdair Nicolson, Brian Lock and Philip Cashian. He has received numerous commissions from many ensembles and musicians, including: Scottish Opera,  Canty, William Taylor, the Aberlour House Senior Choir and TangoDuo. His work The Stars in their Courses will be released on Linn Records on 23 August 2010 (click here for details).

 

 

 

Review - "The excellent quality of Canty's performance set them apart. Their ensemble was sensitive, and their collective sound, while pure and delicately articulated, was succulent. It was almost as if their floating phrases were being eked from their bodies, received by the cavernous, divine space. As if the whole first half had been a dream, Canty processed out singing as they had begun, leaving behind them a blur of lingering echoes."(Anna Goldbeck-Wood in The Yorker, reviewing Canty's concert at the Afro-Saxon Soundclash, which culminated in a performance of From the Song of Solomon in York Minster, October 2008).