Stewart McIlwham (16 March)
Born in Glasgow in 1965 Stewart began playing the flute and piccolo at the age of eight. Initially studying with his father, (who was a member of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra as well as a composer and noted Highland bagpiper) he entered the Douglas Academy Music School in its inaugural year in 1979. While there he studied with John Wiggins before further study in London at the Guildhall School of Music under Peter Lloyd and Edward Beckett.
While still studying at the Guildhall he was offered the position of Principal Piccolo with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in Manchester, a chair he held from 1985–90. He subsequently joined the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra before moving to the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1997, also as Principal Piccolo, a position he still holds.
He gave the world premier of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Piccolo Concerto with the RPO under the composer's direction in 1997 and the British Premier of Erikki Sven Tuur’s Solastalgia for piccolo and orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall with the LPO and Marin Alsop in 2019.
Stewart was a founder member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland as well as a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the European Community Youth Orchestra. He was also twice a finalist in the Shell/LSO Music Scholarship in 1981 and 1985.
He was a member of Board of Directors of the LPO from 2003–22, serving as Vice Chairman from 2005–12 and President from 2012–19.
He is in conversation with Andrew Neill.
