MUSICAL maestro Sir James MacMillan has helped a UK-based choir win a major international award.

His composition of a 13th century religious work, The Stabat Mater, enabled the ensemble to win the coveted Diapason d’Or for choral music.

Winning choir, The Sixteen, performed at St John’s Church in a sell-out concert at last year’s Cumnock Tryst.

Now they have taken the Cumnock connection further by commissioning Sir James to write what has turned out to be a distinguished award-winning piece.

There was much excitement as the accolades were announced during a live broadcast from the France Musique venue in Paris.

The Sixteen, its conductor and founder Harry Christophers and Britten Sinfonia had been awarded the Diapason d’Or for Musique Chorale of James MacMillan’s Stabat Mater.

Sir James followed such composers as Pergolesi, Rossini, Dvořák, Szymanowski and Poulenc in setting the13th-century liturgical text.

Harry Christophers, founder and conductor of The Sixteen, said: “This is very much the culmination of a 15-year association between The Sixteen and James MacMillan.

“For me James ranks amongst a trio of truly great composers of sacred music, the other two being Victoria and Poulenc.

“They have a common focus in their total commitment to the Catholic faith but what makes them so exceptional is their intensely personal approach to the Scriptures.

“Sixty years after Poulenc’s powerful setting, we are witness to a new work which encapsulates the power of the poem in a way no other composer has done to date.

“James digs deep underneath the surface of this 13th-century Marian hymn meditating on Mary’s suffering at the foot of the cross.

“The demands made on my singers are extraordinary; not only are they harmonically complicated, but they are also technically demanding.

“The strings of the Britten Sinfonia played with such sensitivity and vigour constantly portraying the bold and dramatic canvases.”