Neil Mackie

Neil Mackie CBE, CStJ, FRSE, FRCM, FRSAMD (born 1946) is a Scottish classical tenor and Professor at the Royal Academy of Music.^[1][2] During his 30 year international career as a singer, he was closely associated with the works of 20th century composers, particularly Benjamin Britten, and Peter Maxwell Davies. He created the title role in Davies' opera The Martyrdom of St Magnus and Sandy in his The Lighthouse and performed in the world premieres of Davies' Into the Labyrinth, cantata for tenor and chamber orchestra, and The Jacobite Rising, a choral work commissioned to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Jacobite Rising. He has also premiered vocal works by Elliot Carter (In Sleep, in Thunder), Hans Werner Henze (Three Auden Songs) and numerous songs by Benjamin Britten.

Life and career

Mackie was born in Aberdeen and studied as an undergraduate at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama. Following postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music, he studied singing in Munich with Ernst Haefliger then with the English tenor Peter Pears, who was to become a life-long friend.^[1] He made his professional debut in London when he sang as a soloist with English Chamber Orchestra under Raymond Leppard

From 1983 he was also Professor of Singing at the Royal College of Music and in 1993 became head of the Department of Vocal Studies there. He left the Royal College of Music at the end of 2008 when he took up a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music.^[3] Mackie was made a Commander of the British Empire in the 1996 New Year's Honours List for his services to music^[4]

Notes and references

1. ^ ^{a b} Pears (1999) p. 202
2. ^ Cummings (2000) p. 404
3. ^ Royal Academy of Music
4. ^ The Independent (30 December 1995)

Sources

• Cummings, David (ed.), International Who's Who in Music, Routledge, 2000. ISBN 0948875534
• Craggs, Stewart R., Benjamin Britten: a bio-bibliography, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, pp. 72–77. ISBN 031329531X
• The Independent, The New Year Honours: The Prime Minister's List, 30 December 1995 (accessed 23 January 2010)
• Link, John F., Elliott Carter: a guide to research, Taylor & Francis, 2000, p. 37. ISBN 0815324324
• MaxOpus (official web site of Peter Maxwell Davies), Work Detail: Into the Labyrinth
• Pears, Peter, The Travel Diaries of Peter Pears, 1936-1978, Boydell & Brewer, 1999 p. 202. ISBN 0851157416
• Royal Academy of Music, Neil Mackie
• Schott Music Three Auden Songs
• Scottish Music Centre, Jacobite Rising, The (1997)

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Name	Mackie, Neil
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Date of birth	1946
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