10 events this week

Festival in portrait

Quote of the Week

It is art that can structure the personalities of young people with a view to open their minds, to instil the respect of others and the desire of peace.

Yehudi Menuhin

The Presenters of the Atelier IZMIR 2011: Jonathan Mills

Gent, Monday, 17-10-2011

Jonathan Mills is the Festival Director and Chief Executive of the Edinburgh International Festival in Edinburgh (UK). He joined the team of presenters of the Atelier for Young Festival Managers in Varna (2009), and now, for the second time, in Izmir.

“Festivals are one of the few remaining entities in which the artistic setters are allowed and indeed expected to take risk, as Bernard Faivre d’Arcier stated. It is not simply about taking risks for granted; it is about reinventing and revigorating even the most established festivals. Thus, those in charge of this precious entities have an enormous responsibility as much as what we do reflect the imagination of the artists” said Jonathan Mills during the Atelier VARNA 2009.

Jonathan Mills took up the post of Festival Director and Chief Executive of the Edinburgh International Festival in October 2006. Before this appointment, he was the Vice-Chancellor’s (Professorial) Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Director of the Alfred Deakin Lectures and an Artistic Advisor to the new Melbourne Recital Centre & Elisabeth Murdoch Hall.

One of Australia’s most experienced festival directors, his previous posts have included Artistic Director of the Melbourne International Arts Festival, the Melbourne Federation Festival, the Melbourne Millennium Eve celebrations and the Brisbane Biennial International Music Festival.

As a composer he is regularly commissioned in Australia and increasingly in Europe and the UK. His composition Sandakan Threnody for solo tenor, choir and orchestra won the Prix Italia in 2005.

He is a visiting Professor at both Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier Universities, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Chair of the British Council’s Advisory Board. He was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia in the Queens’s Birthday Honours in 2011.

Jonathan Mills is one of the eight renowned festival managers from all over the world participating in IZMIR 2011. Under the coordination of Hugo De Greef they will guide the participants throughout the seven days of the Atelier. In the run-up of the Atelier we present you Robyn Archer (Australia), Hugo De Greef (Belgium), Ching-Lee Goh (Singapore), Rose Fenton (United Kingdom), Nele Hertling (Germany), Michał Merzcyński (Poland) and Fruzsina Szép (Hungary). Keep an eye!

More info on the Atelier IZMIR 2011 at: http://efa-aef.eu/en/activities/atelier/izmir/