“A born opera composer…”
Rodney Milnes, The Times, London
About Me
Find out more about my life in music – as composer and educator working in all parts of the UK and overseas. I have undertaken commissions for some of Britain’s most prestigious institutions and performers. These range from festivals, such as Edinburgh, Holland, Buxton and Almeida Opera, to the English National Opera and the BBC Symphony orchestra.
Latest from my blog
They used to say of opera: “It’s over when the fat lady sings.” (Incomprehensible stabbings; foreign lingo; over-the-top hammy acting…) Things have to be larger than life though. Otherwise, why are these people singing and not…
Comedy
“All is lightness and grace!” wrote an early commentator on Mozart’s great comedy “The Marriage of Figaro”. And yet, in that long tale of love, aristocratic entitlement, family ties and strife, as in all of Mozart,…
Festivals
“Ineluctably the Festivals arise”, to misquote Rainer Maria Rilke. And, as summer approaches, thank God for them! In the world of classical music they are vital. But they now appear, perhaps, as in a shadow of…
Concentration Blues
Franz Schubert was accused, in his sonata ans symphonies, of “heavenly length”. When Wagner wrote his lengthy operas, civil servants and theatre devotees, clutching their subscriptions, pulled down the blinds and left work at 5 as…
Ian on composing: Where do the notes come from?
All of music, it seems, is available at a click. How can composers create meaning
and expression in a digital world?
Ian on Music Education
Every young musician needs role models – even composers – where are they now??? Every parent should read this!
Reviews
Leif Aare, Dagens Nyhete
Fortunato (1993) Brilliant adventure!… “…You are here invited to participate in an operatic adventure like nothing you have ever experienced before…Libretto, music, production, light and choreography combine into a total conception…. The result is a piece…
Paul Driver, The Financial Times
Fortunato (1993) At the performance of Fortunato I attended the house was full, the average age was seventeen – half that of the town [of Umea] – and the final acclamation was overwhelming. McQueen with his…
Alexander Waugh, Evening Standard
East and West (1995) Modern horrors of the race war… “A proselytizing treatise on the horrors of modern racism shrouded in the deleterious mystique of contemporary operatic entertainment (?) In reality, nothing could be further from…
John Purser, The Herald
Vocal Music: Dreams for Marcie (1986) The premiere of Dreams for Marcie…brought a welcome visit from one of Scotland’s brightest… émigré composers. The music is necessarily uncompromising but with a powerful dramatic potential. … A telling…
Peter Stadlen, The Daily Telegraph
Chamber Music: Eighteenth Century Scottish Dances (1976) “Yeuch!” yelled the Fires of London players… Ian McQueen had us in fits of laughter. The tunes are selected… from the golden age of Scottish music… The modernity was…
Michael Tummelty, The Herald
Orchestral Music: Phaedrus (1993) Driven by galloping rhythms … it’s a complex work with a fascinating transatlantic flavour – I kept feeling that jazz was just around the corner.















