William Michael Roger Bankes-Jones BEM (born 1963), known professionally as Bill Bankes-Jones, is a British opera director and artistic director and founder of Tête à Tête. He is best known for his work in new opera, having directed over 100 world premieres during his career. He studied philosophy at the

University of Saint Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, t ...

before joining the ITV regional theatre young directors' scheme, working at the

Thorndike Theatre The Thorndike Theatre, now known as the Leatherhead Theatre, is a Grade II listed building in Leatherhead, Surrey, England. Roderick Ham designed the theatre for Hazel Vincent Wallace within the shell of the disused 1930s Crescent Cinema. Name ...

and the

Redgrave Theatre The Redgrave Theatre was a theatre in Farnham in Surrey from 1974 to 1998. The theatre, named after Sir Michael Redgrave, had regular repertory seasons and also staged a variety of plays and musical productions until financial difficulties forc ...

. He went on to become a staff director at

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is a British opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in E ...

in 1991 before founding Tête à Tête in 1997. He has continued as artistic director since then, leading the company's expansion and creation of Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival in 2006. He has since described his intention in creating the Festival as a showcase for new work in a period when there were very few new operas being done, to confront perceptions of opera as exclusive and to establish a fringe for opera. It has become associated with the emergence of trends such as gig theatre, composer-performer collectives and gallery opera. In 2012, he was listed in the

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

's 1000 Most Influential Londoners for his work on the Festival. The citation praised the Festival as "the place to experience the latest triumphs and occasional spectacular failures of the genre." He has also worked with the Royal Opera, the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Scottish Opera Scottish Opera is the national opera company of Scotland, and one of the five national performing arts companies of Scotland. Founded in 1962 and based in Glasgow, it is the largest performing arts organisation in Scotland. History Scottish Op ...

, and the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

. He was the Chair of the Opera and Music Theatre Forum 2002-2023. In 2017 he directed the world premiere of ''Belongings'', for which he was also the librettist. It was the first opera to be performed on a Caledonian Sleeper Service. In 2020, he was involved in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport's pilot performance for the safe return of opera during the COVID-19 pandemic as Tête à Tête's Artistic Director, and worked on ensuring that year's Festival went ahead safely. He was awarded a British Empire Medal in that year's Queen's Birthday Honours for "services to Opera and Diversity."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bankes-Jones, Bill 1963 births Living people British opera directors