Sir Jonathan Mills AC FRSE (born 21 March 1963) is an Australian composer and festival director.
[2] He has Scottish roots, his maternal grandfather having been a Scot from Partick,[3] and he has dual Australian and British citizenship.
He graduated as Master of Architecture at RMIT in 1999, focusing on acoustic design and the role of sound in the built environment.
[1] In 1999 came his first chamber opera, The Ghost Wife, to a libretto by Dorothy Porter based on the short story The Chosen Vessel by Barbara Baynton,[8] set in the Australian bush at the beginning of the twentieth century.
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.
[11] 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.
In the Australian 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a 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".
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".
[21] In March 2013 Mills entered into a civil partnership with his partner of seven years, Ben Divall, whom he had met in Melbourne.