Oration - Jonathan Mills

Jonathan Mills, Director of the Edinburgh Festival since 2006, was born in Sydney Australia. His wealth of experience in both Australia and Scotland make him an ideal candidate to be awarded an honorary degree from Queen Margaret University.

Initially studying as a composer, Jonathan moved on to do a qualification in architectural acoustics. He has founded and run festivals in his native Australia and composed and directed operas and musical works for live and recorded performances in both sound and vision. With this background he is both a ‘music‘ person and a ‘performance ‘ person - a person with a taste in both media that extends and blends over a vast timeframe, whose festival programming stretches over five centuries of creativity - a wider canvas than many Festival directors can ever hope to work upon.

He has a range of interests and skills that make him an ideal person to drive the fascinating international phenomenon that is the Edinburgh International Festival.

Jonathan was seen by some as a controversial choice for the Directorship of the Festival, but not by the Board of the Festival who thought him far and away the best candidate. He also had the endorsement of a former Premier of the State of Victoria, who appointed Jonathan as Director of the Melbourne Festival, where he had enormous success prior to coming to Scotland.

And of course that life and career that started in Australia with artistic achievements that include opera, ballet, a radio song cycle and a concerto is now brought to bear on our Festival experience here in Edinburgh.

Today, this year, and future years will present this man with a real challenge. The person who leads the Edinburgh International Festival has to curate a globally significant event with performers and audiences from all over the world. In addition, that Director is almost obliged to set a tone and a mood that will influence all the other Festivals in the City, an even more challenging task than the one he is formally paid to do. Jonathan's very great skill and accomplishment is to have presented programmes significantly more 'challenging' than those of the past, and yet to make them not merely acceptable, but obviously exciting and entertaining for ever larger audiences. He has pushed up audience numbers. He has also achieved increased funding. He is a phenomenon, and through sheer force of intellect, personality and brilliant programming, has really taken the Edinburgh International Festival to new heights.

I have known, met, or known of five Edinburgh International Festival Directors, and this person is of a different stock. The form of his career and profile - a creative person, engaged in the everyday physical environment of city life and buildings and committed to running globally significant artistic events - touches every part of our educational and research portfolio.

In recognition of his energy, his commitment and his contribution, we are delighted to honour Jonathan Mills.

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