He studied composition with James Iliff at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1966 to 1970 and then with Ingvar Lidholm in Stockholm in 1971. His opera "Cullercoats Tommy", with a libretto by Michael Wilcox was premiered by Northern Sinfonia and Northern Stage in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1993 He received a British Composers' Award in 2003. In 2004 he received a Creative Scotland Award which allowed him to create the work Defying Fate. He was commissioned to produce the finale for the 2006 St Magnus Festival, Ring of Strings. McGuire plays the flute in the folk group the Whistlebinkies. In January 2006 he travelled to Hong Kong with the group to ...more on Wikipedia