Composer

Is madness a means of escaping reality? Or — on the contrary — a way of confronting it? With his monodrama Eight Songs for a Mad King, Peter Maxwell Davies created in 1968 a brilliantly crafted character study of the deranged British monarch George III, whose reign began in 1760, drawing on the king’s own original texts. Seductive melodies stand alongside dissonances in this modern music-theater classic, which sketches a portrait of emotional and mental disintegration: they are provocative, yet at the same time reveal a startling lucidity.

Luzerner Theater Opera Ensemble | Lucerne Symphony Orchestra | Maria Radzikhovskiy | Marie Lambert-Le Bihan

Lucerne Theatre

The boundary-pushing Ubu Ensemble, directed by Simon Wills, turns its lens to the world of cinema in a thrilling exploration of film-inspired sound.

Ubu Ensemble: Ubu at the Movies

Guildhall School of Music & Drama

EPSG:4326

Symphony Orchestra – Nicholas McGegan, guest conductor

Musical Arts Center

MSM Faculty Recital: Lucy Shelton, soprano

Manhattan School of Music

Tenor, horn, & strings Warlock, Maxwell Davies, & Britten

Avon Theater

London Sinfonietta returns to Kings Place, presenting an evening of music by Scottish composers exploring the idea of love and our deepest human need for connection.

Judith Weir’s evocative music sets the scene, before the Public World Premiere of a privately commissioned work Love Bade me Welcome by James MacMillan setting poetry about divine love by George Herbert.

Love Lines

Kings Place Music Foundation

"harmony In The Highlands"

The Long Center for the Performing Arts

Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies were two of the most prominent avant-garde musical voices in post-war Britain.

Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot

Royal Academy of Music

An all-night party, a northern sunrise – join us for a life-affirming celebration of music made in Scotland. Singers from across the Central Belt come together to perform modern sacred masterpieces by Sir James MacMillan, and Errollyn Wallen salutes her ancestors in a wordless song of survival and freedom. We raise a toast to the late Lyell Creswell - the irrepressible, utterly individual New Zealand composer who made Edinburgh his home, and whose extraordinary Third Piano Concerto receives its European premiere from Danny Driver. And then we’re off to Orkney, where Peter Maxwell Davies is keeping a welcome – no spoilers, but let’s just say that it gets lively…

Scottish Influences

Glasgow City Hall

Part of Carnegie Hall’s Fall of the Weimar Republic: Dancing on the Precipice festival

The New Series: The Mad King

The Juilliard School

From a modest shirt to full-on tartan kilt, feel free to wear your plaid with pride and prepare for a musical feast full of bagpipes + Scottish surprises! 

Masterworks 2 Concert Scotland Forever!

NDSU Festival Concert Hall

Travel with us through three stunning musical landscapes. Peter Maxwell Davies’s An Orkney Wedding, with Sunrise is a piece that earns its surprise ending—probably the best possible combination of bagpipes and orchestra. Violinist Andrew Sords returns to Flagstaff to join us for Max Bruch’s joyful and impressive Scottish Fantasy, one of the violin repertoire’s most richly scored showpieces. The evening closes with William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, a pioneering work for both American music and African American composers.

Echoes of Home

Northern Arizona University

Musicians from our orchestra Royal Northern Sinfonia and conductor James Weeks, a real master of contemporary classical music.

Eight Songs for a Mad King

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music

Green Bay's ONLY all professional symphony orchestra. Weidner Philharmonic performs under the artistic direction of Michelle McQuade Dewhirst, and conducted by UW-Green Bay Chancellor Michael Alexander. The world class acoustics of Cofrin Family Hall and atmospheric lighting design will enhance the symphony concert experience. Featuring Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question and other repertoire exploring themes of seeking, with surprising instruments and unexpected perfomers.

Composer

Peter Maxwell Davies

Events

Upcoming events

Feb 13, 2027

Echoes of Home · Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra

Mar 27, 2027

Eight Songs for a Mad King · Royal Northern Sinfonia

May 1, 2027

Weidner Philharmonic: Sound & Seek · The Weidner

Past events

Aug 28, 2026

Luzerner Theater Opera Ensemble | Lucerne Symphony Orchestra | Maria Radzikhovskiy | Marie Lambert-Le Bihan · Lucerne Festival

Mar 26, 2026

Ubu Ensemble: Ubu at the Movies · Guildhall School of Music & Drama

About

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