Biography

Helen is a composer of choral, orchestral and chamber music, and is based in Perth, Scotland.

Helen studied music at The University of Glasgow, Scotland specialising in composition with Scottish composer William Sweeney.  After gaining her First Class Honours BMus (2002), Helen taught music independently alongside a professional career in marketing and management in the charity sector for 15 years before deciding to compose professionally in 2016 after being awarded for her choral writing. 

​Helen writes extensively for choirs, with her sacred choral work being performed internationally. Helen is featured as an Emerging Composer with Florence Choral Festivals. Her setting of Gloria in excelsis Deo was awarded at the 2nd International Competition of Choral Composition Ennio Morricone in Florence and premiered at the Leonardo da Vinci International Choral Festival in 2017 performed by one of the Philippines premier chamber choirs, Kammerchor Manila. The work was recorded with Prague Mixed Chamber Choir and conductor Jiří Petrdlík and released in 2019 on Voices of Earth and Air Vol. II. 

Helen's first full Mass in Latin Mass for the Spirit was published in 2018, with movements being performed by choirs across the UK. A new work for string orchestra and soprano Ave Maris Stella premiered in Serbia in 2019 with the Subotica Philharmonic Orchestra and Alenka Ponjavić Vojnić.

In January 2022, Helen's orchestral work The Rinns of Islay performed by the RSNO was released as part of an album 'Legends and Light Vol. II'. The work premiered with Perth Symphony Orchestra in May 2022 in Perth Concert Hall.

Visit Helen's website

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News and New Projects Legends and Light Vol. 2

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Residence/Main Office Glasgow

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Contact email

Works

Title	Year composed	Instrumentation Genre
The Rinns of Islay	2019	Ensemble (with conductor)
Ave Maris Stella	2019	Ensemble (with conductor)
Caledonian Tracks	2020	Ensemble (no conductor)
Spring / Remember Me	2022	Vocal
Mass for the Spirit	2018	Vocal
Gloria in excelsis Deo	2015	Vocal
Skin and Bone	2002	Ensemble (no conductor)

See the full list of works by Helen Mackinnon

Events

Date	Title	Venue
6 Aug 2022, 7 p.m.	Abermore Singers - Premiere of Sanctus by Helen MacKinnon	Dunkeld Cathedral, Dunkeld, Scotland, UK
6 Sep 2022, 7 p.m.	Abermore Singers - Premiere of Sanctus by Helen MacKinnon	St Salvator's Chapel, St Andrews, Scotland, UK
8 Oct 2022, 7:30 p.m.	Ulrike Wutscher - Premiere Spring and Remember by Helen MacKinnon	Edinburgh Society of Musicians, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
8 Oct 2022, 7:30 p.m.	Ulrike Wutscher - Premiere Spring and Remember by Helen MacKinnon	Edinburgh Society of Musicians, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK