APPLICATIONS OPEN NOW!

The Cumnock Tryst is delighted to open applications for its second International Summer School for Composers. Led by Tryst Founder and Artistic Director Sir James MacMillan and composer Brett Dean, applications are open worldwide to anyone aged 18 and over.

About The Cumnock Tryst

For a few autumn days each year, the East Ayrshire town of Cumnock becomes a meeting place for music. Founded by composer James MacMillan in the town where he grew up, The Cumnock Tryst brings some of the world's greatest musicians into local venues, churches and halls, and places the community’s creativity alongside them in a broad and joyful programme that inspires music makers and music lovers of all backgrounds and experience.

The Festival’s name, The Cumnock Tryst, was inspired by a piece of music James MacMillan wrote in the 1980s when he was still living in Ayrshire. This was a setting of William Soutar’s love poem, The Tryst. Tryst is an old Scots word which means a meeting place, or a romantic rendezvous. The town of Cumnock itself ties into this sense of coming together as its Gaelic name, comunn achadh, means place of the confluence, as the town sits where the Glaisnock River and the Lugar Water meet. For four packed days and nights The Cumnock Tryst is a meeting place for music-lovers. But it now also promotes a year round concert series and community engagement programme, bringing even more opportunities to experience the joy of live-music-making and the benefits of composition.

Course Structure

The course will run from Saturday 22 – Friday 28 August 2026 at Dumfries House, Cumnock, Scotland.

The course will open with an evening introduction from James and Brett for all participants and the general public. They will discuss their own work and their approach to composition and encourage a dialogue with those attending. Successful applicants will then have the opportunity to work one-to-one with both James and Brett during formal lessons and informal consultation, hear about each other’s work and share their learning, all with a professional octet of players from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on hand as the week progresses. The course will culminate in a public performance at the RSNO Centre, Glasgow, showcasing the composers’ work played by the RSNO octet. The participants will also receive a recording of their work from the performance.

All participants will be asked to bring a partly completed work for the octet [clarinet, bassoon, horn, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass]. During the course, you will finish writing this work under the guidance of James and Brett and it will be a maximum of 5 minutes duration when completed.

Participants will be asked to bring their own manuscript, pencils or other writing materials and a laptop if required.

All participants will be given the opportunity to present their own compositional approach to the group, which could include recorded excerpts of their music.

The course will use English as its core language and it would be expected that all participants would have a working knowledge of English.

Application Process

To apply, please complete the following online application form: https://forms.gle/LfswK8SoLFgWwNTt9

Please also send the score of one piece that you have written in the last 12 months and your CV to hello@thecumnocktryst.com Large files may be sent by WeTransfer link. Guidance on creating a WeTransfer link can be found here. Your score should be saved as: Surname_Firstname Score; and your CV should be saved as: Surname_Firstname CV

Your application form, score and CV must be received by 17:00 GMT on Friday 27th March 2026.

The International Summer School is open globally, to all composers over 18 years of age at the time of application.

Eight composers will be selected to attend and all composers will be notified as soon as possible as to whether their application has been successful. The Cumnock Tryst will not enter into any correspondence regarding the selection of composers.

Course Fee and Financial Assistance

The course costs £1975 including all tuition, accommodation and meals at Dumfries House, the performance and recording of your work, access to keyboards and printers if required. The fee would be payable by bank transfer by Friday 26th June 2026. Instalments will be considered if required.

Any financial barriers to attendance would be discussed with successful applicants individually, as financial assistance will be available to those who can demonstrate a need for support. Please do not let the course fee prevent you from applying. However, successful applicants would be responsible for their own travel expenses. The Cumnock Tryst could not support travel to or from Cumnock, Scotland.

Sir James MacMillan

James MacMillan is the pre-eminent Scottish composer of his generation. He first attracted attention with the acclaimed BBC Proms premiere of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie (1990). His percussion concerto Veni, Veni Emmanuel (1992) has received over 500 performances worldwide by orchestras including London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics and Cleveland Orchestra. Other major works include the cantata Seven Last Words from the Cross (1993), Quickening (1998) for soloists, children’s choir, mixed choir and orchestra, the operas Inès de Castro (2001) and The Sacrifice (2005-06), St John Passion (2007), St Luke Passion (2013) and Symphony No.5: ‘Le grand Inconnu’ (2018).

Recent highlights include MacMillan’s Stabat Mater for The Sixteen streamed from the Sistine Chapel and premieres of the 40-voice motet Vidi aquam, Christmas Oratorio streamed in 2021 by NTS Dutch Radio from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, and the anthem Who Shall Separate Us? commissioned for the funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. The annual Cumnock Tryst festival was founded by the composer in 2014 in his childhood town in Scotland.

Brett Dean

Brett Dean was born and studied in Australia before moving to Germany. He was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic for fourteen years, during which time he began composing. His music is championed by leading conductors and orchestras worldwide, including Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons, and Marin Alsop. Much of Dean’s work draws from literary, political, environmental or visual stimuli, including a number of compositions inspired by artwork by his wife Heather Betts.

Dean began composing in 1988, gaining international recognition through works such as his clarinet concerto Ariel's Music (1995) and Carlo (1997), inspired by the music of Carlo Gesualdo. In 2009 Dean won the Grawemeyer Award for violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing, and in 2017 his second opera Hamlet was premiered at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, winning a South Bank Sky Arts Award and International Opera Award. In 2022 Dean was awarded the Ivor Novello Award for Chamber Ensemble Composition for Madame ma bonne soeur, and in 2023 he won the Ivor Novello Award for Orchestral Composition for his Cello Concerto.

Alongside composing, Dean performs widely with orchestras, ensembles and festivals as a conductor and violist. During the 2024/25 season, Dean conducts the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Lapland Chamber Orchestra, Riot Ensemble and Australian National Academy of Music. He plays chamber music at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Rheingau Musik Festival, Hatfield House Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival and Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival, where Dean’s I Starred Last Night, I Shone receives its world premiere in a new version for voice and string trio. The season also includes the German premiere of Fire Music with the Berlin Philharmonic (conducted by Marin Alsop), and the Spanish premiere of Dean’s In spe contra spem by the Orquesta Nacional de España (conducted by Jaime Martín).

Dean was Composer in Residence of the London Philharmonic from 2019-2023, and at the Wigmore Hall for the 2023/24 season.

About Dumfries House

Dumfries House is one of Britain’s most beautiful stately homes. Set in 2,000 acres of land, the stunning estate and 18th century house has an unrivalled collection of original furniture. Saved by the intervention of The King, then His Royal Highness, The Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay in 2007, Dumfries House combines the neoclassical architecture of Robert Adam with the furniture of Thomas Chippendale and leading 18th century Scottish cabinet makers.

The estate, in East Ayrshire, is the headquarters of the charity The King’s Foundation, which runs its life-changing education programmes and health and wellbeing initiatives there and is responsible for opening Dumfries House itself to the public. Each year, more than 20,000 visit the house, an estimated 140,000 people enjoy free-of-charge the surrounding estate, and more than 10,000 students of all ages engage in The King’s Foundation’s education programmes.

Meals are prepared by their team of Chefs and served family-style three times a day in the communal dining area of the Residential Centre. All dietary requirements will be catered for. There is a fridge, microwave and hot water tap in the dining area for residents’ use. Where possible the Chefs aim to use seasonal ingredients and vegetables grown on the estate.

All participants will be offered their own private room with shared bathroom and shower facilities at the Residential Centre on the Dumfries House estate. Whilst each composer will have their own private room, the rooms are bunk-bed style with multiple beds.