Award winning Scottish composer Helen MacKinnon embodies a soulful musical language, combining ancient inspiration with a contemporary voice.

Helen MacKinnon is a Scottish composer of choral, ensemble and orchestral music. Her recent orchestral work, The Rinns of Islay, was recorded with the RSNO and awarded in the 2022 Global Music Awards.

Helen studied music at The University of Glasgow (1998-2002 BMus First Class Honours) specialising in composition under the tutelage of William Sweeney. Her most notable compositional work of that period was 'Crossing the Domain', a setting of Edwin Morgan's poem From the Domain of Arnheim for female voices and percussion. After graduating, Helen enjoyed a career in marketing and management in the charity sector before moving professionally into composing. After emerging as a composer in 2016, Helen has written a large portfolio of sacred choral works which have been performed or aired across the UK, Europe more widely, USA, Asia and South Africa and enjoyed by premier chamber ensembles and choral societies. Helen takes musical inspiration from her Scottish heritage, faith, and travels, inspired by people and place.

Helen’s a cappella choral setting of Gloria in excelsis Deo was awarded by Ennio Morricone in the 2nd International Competition of Choral Composition in Florence International Choir Festival and now features as a Modern and Contemporary repertoire piece in Florence Choral Festivals. The work premiered in The Philippines, was recorded with Prague Mixed Chamber Choir and released as part of a choral album, Voices of Earth & Air Vol. II. The work has received regular airplay globally and was reviewed as “Spectacular writing for voices” [Music of our Mothers, WFCF, USA].

Commissions have ranged from My Voice, a work for female voices and piano exploring gender, voice and authority and written for The University of Oxford as part of a Women and the Canon International Conference, to a sacred choral anthem for Perth Festival of the Arts, and more recently, a 'A Symphony of Moral Sentiments' for string trio for The University of Glasgow's Tercentenary of Adam Smith. Helen’s work for string orchestra and soprano Ave Maris Stella premiered in Serbia, with the country’s oldest symphony orchestra, the Subotica Philharmonic and soprano Alenka Ponjavić Vojnić.

Helen's orchestral work The Rinns of Islay was recorded by the RSNO and PARMA Recordings and released in 2022. The work premiered with Perth Symphony Orchestra in May 2022 in Perth Concert Hall and was awarded in the 2022 Global Music Awards.

The early part of 2024 will see Helen continuing to work alongside composers Oliver Searle and Jay Capperauld as mentors for young composers on the RSNO's 'Notes from Scotland' programme, as well as the premiere of a new orchestral work 'The Pearl of Scotland', a tribute to St Margaret of Scotland.