Jonathan Alistair James Reekie (born 2 September 1964, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

) is a British arts administrator who has been the Director of Somerset House Trust since 2014. During this time, the renovation of the historic site has been completed, including the launch of Somerset House Studios, helping to establish Somerset House as "London's Working Arts Centre", home to a creative community in central London. Reekie has overseen the expansion of the cultural programme, including

PJ Harvey Polly Jean Harvey (born 9 October 1969) is an English singer-songwriter. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments. Harvey began her career in 1988 when she joined local band Automat ...

's ''Recording in Progress'' with

Artangel Artangel is a London-based arts organisation founded in 1985 by Roger Took. Directed since 1991 by James Lingwood and Michael Morris, it has commissioned and produced a string of notable site-specific works, plus several projects for TV, film, r ...

Björk Digital ''Björk Digital'' was an "immersive" virtual reality exhibition by Icelandic musician Björk featuring 360-degree VR music videos from her eighth studio album, ''Vulnicura''. The exhibit debuted at Carriageworks in Sydney, Australia as part of V ...

, ''Big Bang Data'', ''Perfume'', and ''Get Up, Stand Up Now''. In 2019, Reekie co-curated with Sarah Cook the exhibition ''24/7'', a wake-up call to a non-stop world, based on the book by

Jonathan Crary Jonathan Crary is an American art critic and essayist and is the Meyer Schapiro Professor of Modern Art and Theory at Columbia University. His first notable works were ''Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the 19th Century'' ...

Career

Reekie's first job, when still a student, was working for the opera festival Musica nel Chiostro,

Batignano Batignano () is a small town in southern Tuscany, a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Grosseto, positioned at about 10 km north-east of the capital on one of the last foot-hills of the valley of Ombrone which dominated the ancient city of Ros ...

, Italy. On finishing his degree, Reekie spent five seasons at Glyndebourne Opera. In 1991, Reekie joined the

Almeida Theatre The Almeida Theatre is a 325-seat producing house located on Almeida Street off Upper Street in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre opened in 1980, and produces a diverse range of drama. Successful plays are often transferred to West E ...

as General Manager, to work alongside the two artistic directors, Jonathan Kent and

Ian McDiarmid Ian McDiarmid ( ; born 11 August 1944) is a Scottish actor and director of stage and screen. Making his stage debut in ''Hamlet'' in 1972, McDiarmid joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1974, and has since starred in a number of Shakespeare's ...

and helped produce more than 30 theatre productions. While at the Almeida, Reekie founded a contemporary opera festival, Almeida Opera, as a successor to the Almeida Festival, commissioning and producing more than 20 contemporary operas and concert series, including

Thomas Adès Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès (born 1 March 1971) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: ''The Tempest (opera), The T ...

's ''

Powder Her Face ''Powder Her Face'', Op. 14 (1995), is a chamber opera in two acts by the British composer Thomas Adès, with an English libretto by Philip Hensher. The opera is 100 minutes long. It was commissioned by the Almeida Opera, a part of London's ...

'',

Jonathan Dove Jonathan Dove (born 18 July 1959) is an English composer of opera, choral works, plays, films, and orchestral and chamber music. He has arranged a number of operas for English Touring Opera and the City of Birmingham Touring Opera (now Birm ...

Giorgio Battistelli Giorgio Battistelli (born 25 April 1953) is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music. A native of Albano Laziale (province of Rome), he studied at the conservatory in L'Aquila and is a former student of Stockhausen and Kagel. Battistel ...

and UK premieres by

Heiner Goebbels Heiner Goebbels (born 17 August 1952) is a German composer, Conductor (music), conductor and professor at University of Giessen, Justus-Liebig-University in Gießen and artistic director of the International Festival of the Arts Ruhrtriennale 201 ...

Olga Neuwirth Olga Neuwirth (; born 4 August 1968) is an Austrian contemporary classical composer, visual artist and author. She is famed especially for her operas and music theater works, many of which have treated sociopolitical themes. She has emphasized an ...

Per Nørgård Per Nørgård (; 13 July 1932 – 28 May 2025) was a Danish composer and music theorist. Though his style varied considerably throughout his career, his music often included repeatedly evolving melodies, in the vein of Jean Sibelius, and a per ...

. Reekie became Chief Executive of

Aldeburgh Music Britten Pears Arts is a large music education organisation based in Suffolk, England. It aims to continue the legacy of composer Benjamin Britten and his partner, singer Peter Pears, and to promote the enjoyment and experience of music for all ...

in 1997, though he continued to collaborate with Almeida Opera for a further five years. He stayed at Aldeburgh for 16 years, collaborating with Festival Artistic Directors

1999–2008 and

Pierre-Laurent Aimard Pierre-Laurent Aimard (born 9 September 1957) is a French pianist. He focuses on contemporary music. Biography Aimard was born in Lyon, where he entered the conservatory. Later he studied with Yvonne Loriod and with Maria Curcio. In 1973, h ...

from 2009. Reekie was the architect of Aldeburgh's year-long

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

Centenary programme in 2013, featuring most notably ''

Peter Grimes ''Peter Grimes'', Op. 33, is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Montagu Slater based on the section "Peter Grimes", in George Crabbe's long narrative poem '' The Borough''. The "borough" of the opera is a fictional ...

'' on Aldeburgh beach (described in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' as "a remarkable, and surely unrepeatable achievement") and the Borough, created by

Punchdrunk (theatre company) Punchdrunk is a British theatre company formed in 2000 by Felix Barrett. The company developed a form of immersive theater, immersive theatre in which no audience member will have the same experience as another. The audience is free to choose w ...

. At Aldeburgh, Reekie produced more than 20 new operas and music theatre works, many commissioned, including from composers

Richard Ayres Richard Ayres (born 29 October 1965) is a British composer and music teacher. Biography Born in Cornwall, England, Richard Ayres followed Morton Feldman's classes at the Darmstadt and Dartington summer schools. He studied Musical composition, c ...

Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include '' T ...

Oliver Knussen Stuart Oliver Knussen (12 June 1952 – 8 July 2018) was a British composer of contemporary classical music and conductor. Among the most influential British composers of his generation, his relatively few compositions are "rooted in 20th-cen ...

and

Anna Meredith Anna Howard Meredith (born 12 January 1978) is a Scottish composer and performer of electronic and acoustic music. She is a former composer-in-residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and former PRS/RPS Composer in the House with S ...

. Repertoire opera productions included ''

The Rape of Lucretia ''The Rape of Lucretia'' (Op. 37) is an opera in two acts by Benjamin Britten, written for Kathleen Ferrier, who performed the title role. Ronald Duncan based his English libretto on André Obey's play '. Performance history The opera wa ...

'', directed by

David McVicar Sir David McVicar (born 1966) is a Scottish opera and theatre director. Biography McVicar was born in Glasgow in 1966. He studied as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, graduating in 1989. In 2007, ''The Independent'' ra ...

; ''

The Rake's Progress ''The Rake's Progress'' is an English-language opera from 1951 in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings '' A Rake's Prog ...

'', director Neil Bartlett; and ''

Death in Venice ''Death in Venice ''() is a novella by German author Thomas Mann, published in 1912. It presents an ennobled writer who visits Venice and is liberated, uplifted, and then increasingly obsessed by the sight of a boy in a family of Polish tourist ...

'', directo
Yoshi Oida
Other projects in Aldeburgh included SNAP – Art at the Aldeburgh Festival, with

Abigail Lane Abigail Lane (born 1967) is an English artist who works in photography, wax casting, printing and sound. Lane was one of the exhibitors in the 1988 Damien Hirst-led Freeze exhibition—a mixed show of art which was significant in the development ...

Ryan Gander Ryan Gander (born 1976) is a British artist. Since 2003, Gander has produced a body of artworks in different forms, ranging from sculpture, apparel, writing, architecture, painting, typefaces, publications, and performance. Additionally, Gander ...

Maggi Hambling Margaret J. Hambling (born 23 October 1945) is a British artist. Though principally a painter, her best-known public works are the sculptures '' A Conversation with Oscar Wilde'' and '' A Sculpture for Mary Wollstonecraft'' in London, and the ...

Sarah Lucas Sarah Lucas (born 1962) is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged in 1988. Her works frequently employ visual puns and bawdy humour by incorporating photography, sculpture, collage and found object ...

, Glenn Brown and many others artists associated with Suffolk, and Faster than Sound, an experimental music programme including commissions from

Mira Calix Chantal Francesca Passamonte (28 October 1969 – 25 March 2022), known professionally as Mira Calix ( ), was a South African-born British-based audio and visual artist and musician signed to Warp Records. She also worked as Warp's press office ...

Christian Marclay Christian Marclay (born January 11, 1955) is a visual artist and composer. He holds both American and Swiss nationality. Marclay's work explores connections between sound art, noise music, photography, video art, film and digital animations. A p ...

and

Chris Watson John Christian Watson (born Johan Cristian Tanck; 9 April 186718 November 1941) was an Australian politician who served as the third prime minister of Australia from April to August 1904. He held office as the inaugural federal leader of the Au ...

amongst numerous others. His tenure also saw considerable expansion of the artist development and education programme and major capital projects, with the creation of the Pumphouse in 2000, and in 2009, the new Hoffmann Building at

Snape Maltings Britten Pears Arts is a large music education organisation based in Suffolk, England. It aims to continue the legacy of composer Benjamin Britten and his partner, singer Peter Pears, and to promote the enjoyment and experience of music for all ...

, including the 350-seat Britten Studio.

Other roles

Reekie has been a trustee of Musica nel Chiostro, the Arts Foundation, and an adviser to the

Paul Hamlyn Foundation Paul Hamlyn Foundation is a registered charity, and a company limited by guarantee, which has been established in its current form since 2004, succeeding an earlier incarnation that was founded in 1987, which itself formalised established philan ...

Awards

In 2010, Reekie was made an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

, London, and received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

. Reekie was appointed

Commander of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

CBE in the

2013 Birthday Honours The 2013 Birthday Honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of t ...

for services to music.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reekie, Jonathan 1964 births Living people British arts administrators Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Honorary members of the Royal Academy of Music Opera managers Organization founders