Jonathan Mills

Sir Jonathan Mills (born 21 March 1963) is an Australian composer and festival director. He was born and raised in Sydney and has dual Australian and UK citizenship. His work includes operas, an oratorio, a ballet, song cycles, concertos, and chamber music. He has directed a number of arts festivals in Australia, and from 2006 to 2014 he was director of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Biography Jonathan Edward Harland Mills was born in Sydney on 21 March 1963. He has Scottish roots, his maternal grandfather having been a Scot from Partick. His father Frank Harland Mills was a heart surgeon. He studied under Peter Sculthorpe.

Mills was a research fellow and composer-in-residence at RMIT University, Melbourne, between 1992 and 1997. He graduated as Master of Architecture at RMIT in 1999, focusing on acoustic design and the role of sound in the built environment.

In 2001 he wrote Sandakan Threnody, an oratorio for tenor, choir, and orchestra. It is based on the real-life story of the 2,345 Australian and British prisoners of war who in 1945 were sent on a series of death marches from the Japanese camp in Sandakan, Borneo – only six would survive. It was revised and premiered as part of Sydney Symphony Orchestra's 2004 "Meet the Music" series at the Sydney Opera House, and was later performed at the Singapore, Brisbane and Melbourne Festivals. In 2005 it was awarded the Prix Italia.

In 2003 came Mills' chamber opera The Eternity Man, commissioned as a Genesis Foundation Prize by Almeida/Aldeburgh Opera and premiered in London in July that year.

His opera Eucalyptus, to a libretto by Meredith Oakes based on the 1998 novel by Murray Bail, premiered in a concert performance conducted by Tahu Matheson at the Perth Festival in 2024; later that year, it was performed staged at the Brisbane Festival and in Melbourne.

He was Vice-Chancellor's (Professorial) Fellow at the University of Melbourne, director of the Alfred Deakin Lectures and an artistic advisor to the Melbourne Recital Centre (including Elisabeth Murdoch Hall).

In 2006 he was appointed director and chief executive of the Edinburgh International Festival. His term was twice extended, and concluded at the end of 2014.

In 2011 he was appointed international artistic adviser of the Arts Centre Melbourne till the end of 2012, in addition to his existing commitments in Edinburgh. He divides his time between Edinburgh and Melbourne.

Honours In 2001 Jonathan Mills was awarded the Centenary Medal.

In 2008 he was named an honorary doctor of the University of Stirling.

In 2010 he was appointed fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

In the Australian 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), "for distinguished service to the performing arts as a composer and director of international festivals, through the promotion of cultural exchange, and to public debate".

He was knighted in the UK Queen's Birthday Honours of 2013.

He was appointed a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the French Minister of Culture in 2013. He was awarded the Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis (Zasłużony Kulturze – Gloria Artis) of the Republic of Poland in 2013.

In 2013 was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by the University of St Andrews,

He is also an honorary doctor of the University of Edinburgh.

He was awarded an honorary doctorate of music by the University of Sydney in 2015.

In the 2024 King's Birthday Honours list, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), "for eminent service to international cultural leadership and diplomacy, to the performing arts, to philanthropic ventures, and to tertiary education".

Personal life In March 2013 Mills entered into a civil partnership with his partner of seven years, Ben Divall, whom he had met in Melbourne.