MacMillan to conduct Estonian premiere of his second violin concerto

The Tallinn Chamber Orchestra will perform James MacMillan’s Second Violin Concerto in Estonia for the first time on October 24, with the Scottish composer conducting and Swedish violinist Ava Bahari as soloist, ERR reported.

The concert will take place at Tallinn’s House of the Blackheads. The programme opens with Benjamin Britten’s “Prelude and Fugue”, Op. 29, and continues after the interval with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Second Symphony.

MacMillan wrote the concerto in 2021. Its world premiere took place in Perth, Scotland, the following year. Bahari, who is from Gothenburg, performed the work in Stockholm before being invited to play it in Tallinn. She has been selected for the European Concert Hall Organisation’s ECHO Rising Stars programme for the 2026/27 season.

“I am happy when other musicians perform my music and interpret it in their own way. Conducting my own work is a special experience, because I have to take on a different role: the composer becomes the performer. In Tallinn, I will conduct my Second Violin Concerto for the first time,” MacMillan said.

MacMillan has appeared in Estonia before. In 2023, he conducted his chamber opera “Clemency” at the Birgitta Festival. The following year, he performed “Three Scottish Songs” with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. His euphonium concerto “Where the Lugar Meets the Glaisnock” received its first performance in Estonia in 2025.