Jonathan DoveCBE (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 forEnglish Touring Opera and the City of Birmingham Touring Opera (nowBirmingham Opera Company), including in 1990 an 18-player two-evening adaptation ofWagner'sDer Ring des Nibelungen for CBTO. He was Artistic Director of theSpitalfields Festival from 2001 to 2006.

Dove was born in London; both his parents were architects. He studied music at theUniversity of Cambridge, underRobin Holloway, and afterwards worked as a freelance arranger and accompanist until 1987, when he was employed byGlyndebourne Opera.^[1]

In 1998 Dove was joint winner of theChristopher Whelen Award for his work in the fields of theatre music and opera. He was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the2019 Birthday Honours for services to music.^[2]

In 2024 Dove's operaItch received anIvor Novello Award nomination for Best Stage Work Composition at The Ivors Classical Awards.^[3]

In November 2025 Dove won anIvor Novello Award for Best Community and Participation Composition for his operaUprising.^[4]

Productions of Dove's works include:

• Airport Scenes, an orchestral suite from the airport-comedy operaFlight, was premiered by theUniversity of Warwick Symphony Orchestra on 7 March 2006.^[5]
• The Australian premiere (theGlyndebourne Festival Opera production) ofFlight in March 2006, at theAdelaide Festival under the artistic direction ofBrett Sheehy, won Australia's Best Opera award at the nationalHelpmann Awards.^[6][7]
• The Enchanted Pig, libretto byAlasdair Middleton, was premièred at the Young Vic, London in December 2006 and toured parts of the UK in early 2007.^[8][9]
• The Adventures of Pinocchio, libretto byAlasdair Middleton, was commissioned byOpera North andSadler's Wells Theatre, and premièred at theGrand Theatre Leeds on 21 December 2007.^[10] The US première was performed by the Minnesota Opera on 28 February 2009 in St. Paul, Minnesota.^[11]
• The London premiere ofFlight was performed byBritish Youth Opera in September 2008.^[12]
• Swanhunter, achamber opera based on theLemminkäinen legend, was premiered by Opera North in late 2009.^[13]
• Mansfield Park, achamber opera based on theJane Austen novel of the same name, was premiered byHeritage Opera in summer 2011.^[14]
• NZ Opera stagedMansfield Park at Settlers Country Manor in Waimāuku in April 2024 as part of its New Zealand season.^[15]
• Life Is a Dream, a full-scale opera with a libretto byAlasdair Middleton based on the play byPedro Calderón de la Barca, was premiered by Birmingham Opera Company in March 2012.^[16]

Dove's works include:

• Hastings Spring (community opera) (1990)
• Siren Song (1994) First performance on 14th July 1994 at theAlmeida Theatre, London^[17]
• Flight (1998)
• Tobias and the Angel (church opera), to a libretto byDavid Lan (1999). Premiered atSt Matthew's, Perry Beeches.^[18]
• The Palace in the Sky (community opera) (2000)
• L'altra Euridice (2002)
• When She Died... (Death of a Princess) (television opera, commemorating the fifth anniversary of the death ofDiana, Princess of Wales) (2002)
• Man on the Moon (television opera, aboutBuzz Aldrin, second man to walk on the Moon, and the effects the experience had on him and his marriage) (2006)
• The Enchanted Pig (chamber opera) (2006)
• Hear Our Voice (community opera) in partnership withMatthew King (2006), libretto by Tertia Sefton-Green.http://www.hmdt.org.uk/inschool_hearourvoice_1.html
• The Adventures of Pinocchio (2007)
• Swanhunter (2009)
• Mansfield Park (2011)
• Life Is a Dream (2012)
• The Day After (2015)
• The Monster in the Maze (2015)^[19]
• Marx in London (2018)
• Itch (2023)^[20]
• Uprising (community opera) (2025)^[21]

• Figures in the Garden (wind serenade) (1991)
• The Passing of the Year (song cycle for double chorus and piano) (2000) 20th-century
• The Magic Flute Dances (flute concerto) (2000)
• The Three Kings, written for the service ofNine Lessons and Carols atKing's College, Cambridge in 2000^[22]
• Stargazer (a trombone concerto written forIan Bousfield)
• Köthener Messe, for choir and chamber ensemble
• Out of Winter (song-cycle)
• "Seek Him that maketh the Seven Stars" (choral work; setting of Amos 5:8)
• His Dark Materials Part I & II (incidental music) (2003)
• On Spital Fields (community cantata) (2005)
• Hojoki – "An Account of my Hut" (Counter-Tenor and Orchestra)
• I am the day (Carol – SATB)
• Vadam et circuibo civitatem
• Missa Brevis
• Ecce Beatam Lucem (composed forRalph Allwood and the 1997Eton Choral Course^[23])
• There Was a Child (oratorio for soprano, tenor, chorus, and children's choirs) (2009)
• In Damascus, a song-cycle for tenor and string quartet inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis, commissioned by theSacconi Quartet and performed by the Sacconi Quartet andMark Padmore.^[24]
• Unknown Soldier. (Choral and Orchestral Music)
• Sappho Sings, written forRalph Woodward andFairhaven Singers (2019)
• Between Friends (2019) for two pianos – commissioned for the London Piano Festival and written in memory of Dove's friend Graeme Mitchison^[25]
• Gaspard's Foxtrot (2020) A Musical Tale for Narrator and Orchestra from the book byZeb Soanes
• In Exile for baritone, cello and orchestra, libretto Alasdair Middleton (2020), written for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra^[26]
• String Quartet No. 2,On the streets and in the sky (2021)^[27]

• Jonathan Dove (website)
• Jonathan Dove atIMDb

• 1959 births
• 20th-century English classical composers
• 20th-century English male composers
• 21st-century English classical composers
• 21st-century English male composers
• English classical composers of church music
• Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
• English opera composers
• Ivor Novello Award winners
• Living people
• English male opera composers
• Composers from London

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