James MacMillan read music at Edinburgh University and took Doctoral studies in composition at Durham University with John Casken. After working as a lecturer at Manchester University, he returned to Scotland and settled in Glasgow. The successful premiere of Tryst at the 1990 St Magnus Festival led to his appointment as Affiliate Composer of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Between 1992 and 2002 he was Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Orchestra's Music of Today series of contemporary music concerts. MacMillan is internationally active as a conductor, working as Composer/Conductor with the BBC Philharmonic between 2000 and 2009, and appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic from 2010. He was awarded a CBE in January 2004.

Works by MacMillan also include Seven Last Words from the Cross for chorus and string orchestra, screened on BBC TV during Holy Week 1994, Inés de Castro, premiered by Scottish Opera and toured to Porto in 2001, a triptych of orchestral works commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra: The World's Ransoming, a Cello Concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich, and Symphony: 'Vigil' premiered under the baton of Rostropovich in 1997, and Quickening for The Hilliard Ensemble, chorus and orchestra, co-commissioned by the BBC Proms and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

The Edinburgh Quartet was founded in 1960 and quickly became established as one of Britain's foremost chamber ensembles, appearing regularly at prestigious venues across the country including London's Wigmore Hall and The South Bank Centre. It achieved international recognition after winning the Contemporary Prize at the Evian-les-Bains String Quartet Competition and has since toured extensively across Europe, the Far East, North and South America and the Middle East. The Quartet have made numerous BBC TV and BBC Radio 3 broadcasts and can also be heard on Classic FM. 2010 marks the Quartet's fiftieth anniversary and it is now one of the longest running chamber ensembles in the UK with a busier performing schedule than ever before.

The Quartet is resident at Glasgow University and Edinburgh Napier University and also collaborates with Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities. In addition to a regular classical concert series at each of these institutions, the Quartet is committed to nurturing talent and championing new music. The ensemble has worked with many important and prolific composers of our age, including the Quartet's patron, James MacMillan and Michael Tippett, who selected the Edinburgh Quartet's recording of his First Quartet for re-release on EMI shortly before his death.

This recording is representative of the Edinburgh Quartet's extensive discography available on various labels such as Delphian, Linn, Meridian and RCA. Recent recordings include the complete Hans Gal String Quartets ('Editor's Choice' Gramophone Magazine, 2007), the complete Kenneth Leighton String Quartets ( 'The unanimity of their ensemble, even at the densest polyphonic moments in flying scherzo tempo, is very impressive.' BBC Music Magazine), as well as discs of Bartok, Robert Crawford, Haydn, Schubert and Thomas Wilson. Future releases include the complete Matyas Seiber Quartets on Delphian Records, which were featured on a live broadcast by the Edinburgh Quartet on BBC Radio 3.