Hamish MacCunn

Hamish MacCunn, né James MacCunn (22 March 18682 August 1916) was a Scottish composer, conductor and teacher. He was one of the first students of the newly founded Royal College of Music in London, and quickly made a mark. As a composer he achieved early success with his orchestral piece The Land of the Mountain and the Flood (1887), and, later, his first opera, Jeanie Deans (1894). His subsequent compositions did not match those two successes, and although he continued to compose throughout his life, he became best known as a conductor and teacher. He held teaching appointments at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music. As a conductor MacCunn served as musical director to the Carl Rosa, Moody-Manners and D’Oyly Carte opera companies, and worked with Thomas Beecham in the latter’s London opera seasons in 1910 and 1915 and on tour. Life and career Early years James MacCunn was born in Greenock, Scotland, the second son of James MacCunn and his wife Barbara, née Neill. It was a musical household: MacCunn senior, a prosperous shipowner by profession, was an amateur cellist; his wife, a former pupil of Sterndale Bennett, sang and played the piano. The parents enco