Rob MacKillop was born in Dundee, Scotland. After a youthful period of playing the ukulele, MacKillop started teaching himself guitar as a teenager, playing along to records of Muddy Waters and Johnny Winter. When 17 years old, he was asked by his brother-in-law, Angus McFarlane, to play slide guitar on what was claimed to be Scotland’s first punk single, though it was more in the style of pub rock with a Stones/New York Dolls influence. The single was re-released in 2017. In 2001, he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship for his research into medieval Scottish music. In 2004, he was named Composer in Residence for Morgan Academy in Dundee, and in 2001 was Musician in Residence for Madras College, St Andrews. He also organized and directed the Dundee Summer Music Festival. He was formerly Musician In Residence at Queen Margaret University, Musselburgh near Edinburgh. MacKillop recorded several compositions by Roman Turovsky on vihuela, lute and theorbo. Turovsky's Cantio Sarmatica CXI was dedicated to MacKillop.
Discography
He has recorded seven CDs of music for various early plucked instruments, three of which reached the Number One position in the Scottish Classical Music Chart.
Love Is The Cause - Scottish Tunes for Viola da gamba and baroque Guitar, Jonathan Dunford, gamba, and Rob MacKillop, baroque guitar. Arrangements from Scottish manuscripts. Alpha 530. 2009.
Fernando Sor - the Art of the 19th-century Guitar, Volume 1 - Selected Studies. RMmusic 2012.
The Early American Parlour Banjo - Rob MacKillop, gut-strung banjo.
Recital: The Art of the Banjo 1910 - 1930. RMmusic, 2012.
James Oswald - Twelve Divertimentis for the Guittar - ASV Gaudeamus CD GAU 221
Premier recording of the complete divertimenti for the guittar by James Oswald, performed on an original wire-strung guittar from c.1765.
The Healing - Scottish lute, cittern and guittar music. Greentrax Recordings, 2002. CDTRAX227.
Flowers of the Forest - Scottish lute, cittern and guittar music. Greentrax Recordings, 1998. CDTRAX155.
Plucked Instruments in the Edinburgh University Collection of Historical Musical Instruments, played by Rob MacKillop. Baroque guitar, French, mid-18th century; 9 course lute, labelled Matteus Buchenberg; 19th-century guitar by Louis Panormo, 19th-centru guitar by C. F. Martin. 1999. EUCHMICD101.
Graysteil - Music from the Middle Ages and Renaissance In Scotland - Rob MacKillop, lute, William Taylor harp and clarsach, Paul Rendal Andrew Hunter. Dorian Records, 1997. Dorian Discoveries DIS 80141.
Notes of Note, Notes of Joy - The Rowallan Consort, Temple Records, 1995. Scottish music of the 16th and 17th centuries. Lute, clarsach,, voice,. Temple Records COMD 2058.
