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Jonathan Mills

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Jonathan Mills
Visiting Professor of Music Yale School of Music
At YSM Since: 2018
Award(s): Knighted in the UK (2013), Chevalier de l’Ordre National des Arts et Lettres, France (2013), Gloria Artis - Medal for Merit to Culture, Poland (2013), Republic of Korea Cultural Medallion (2013), Doctor of Letter St Andrews University, UK (2013), Doctor of Arts (Honoris causa) from RMIT University in Australia (2013), Doctor of Music (honoris causa) from the University of Sydney in Australia, Doctor (honoris causa) University of Edinburgh, UK (2012), Officer of the Order of Australia (2011), Genesis Prize for opera, UK (2003), Australia Centenary Medal (2001)
I am at YSM to bring together my interests as a composer, particularly of opera, with my international experiences as an artistic director of festivals. While at YSM, I hope to encourage students to look beyond the immediate challenges of performance or composition, and to consider the exciting and evolving contexts in which music and musicians can be discovered in the contemporary world.

Jonathan Mills

I am at YSM to bring together my interests as a composer, particularly of opera, with my international experiences as an artistic director of festivals. While at YSM, I hope to encourage students to look beyond the immediate challenges of performance or composition, and to consider the exciting and evolving contexts in which music and musicians can be discovered in the contemporary world.

Known for his directorship of the internationally celebrated Edinburgh International Festival from 2006–2014, Sir Jonathan Mills has also led prestigious festivals in Brisbane, and Melbourne, Australia. He is recognized around the world for his thought-provoking compositions, including the ballet The Ethereal Eye, the opera Eternity Man, and the oratorio Sandakan Threnody, for which he won a 2005 Prix Italia.

Mills is a visiting professor at the Yale School of Music, where he teaches the class “Culture, Creativity, and Community,” in which artists are encouraged to consider their obligations to the well-being of the communities in which they live and work, and to become resources rather than commodities within contemporary society. 

In addition to his position at Yale, Sir Jonathan serves as visiting professor at the Universities of Edinburgh and Melbourne. He is an advisor to the Aga Khan Music Initiative and Director of the Edinburgh International Culture Summit. His opera Eucalyptus, based on the novel by Murray Bail with a libretto by Meredith Oakes, has been commissioned by Opera Australia to premiere in 2021.

Mills holds a bachelor of music degree in composition from the University of Sydney and a master of architecture degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, where he has also served as a composer-in-residence, research fellow, and adjunct professor.