jonathan Cole - composer
Jonathan Cole is a composer, teacher and conductor.
Early advocates of his music included the London Sinfonietta, premiering three pieces and touring his work in Sweden and Switzerland, as well as recording Testament with Oliver Knussen. Both Ouroboros II and Testament were nominated for RPS awards and in 1999 he was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Composition prize. In 1999, 2000 and 2002 his music was featured as part of the 'State of the Nation' Festival in London's South Bank Centre. In 2003 Sir George Benjamin commissioned Penumbra which he premiered with the London Symphony Orchestra, later revived by Oliver Knussen and broadcast on Radio 3.
Photo by Raphael Neal
In 2006 Cole radically rethought his approach to composition having become increasingly influenced with the ideas and works of Luigi Nono, Alvin Lucier and Eliane Radigue. The music that came out of this intensive period of self-reflection was described by Tim Rutherford-Johnson as sounding “a world away from anything written by his British contemporaries” marking him out “as one of the most strikingly original and provocative voices in British contemporary music.” In these works we find the composer exploring the relationship between score and performer and drawing on the environmental sounds of Cole’s home city, London, to conjure up structures which seem to exist on the fragile threshold between crystallization and decay. In recent years, his musical language has continued to evolve with a focus on clarity and simplicity.
From 2009 - 2013 he was the first composer-in-association with the London Contemporary Orchestra which culminated in the commissioning of burburbabbar za - a wordless opera performed as part of a residency at Snape Maltings in Aldeburgh. In 2012 he was a co-founder of the re:sound collective, organising events around London in such places as a World War II bunker, a nature reserve and a, children's museum.
Ensembles who have performed and commissioned him include the Asko Ensemble, BBC PO, BBC Singers, Chamber Domaine, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (MusicNOW), Chroma, Composer’s Ensemble, Endymion, Explore Ensemble, Fukio Saxophone Quartet, Italian Radio Orchestra, Lontano, Mercury Quartet, Nash Ensemble, Nomad Ensemble (Tokyo), Ojai Festival Orchestra, Ossian Ensemble, Philharmonia Orchestra (Music for Today), Tokyo Sinfonietta, TranSimfonia Strings and Tre Voci.
Conductors of his work include Stefan Asbury, George Benjamin, Martyn Brabbins, Hugh Brunt, Yasuaki Itakura, Oliver Knussen, Tim Lines, Brad Lubman, Diego Masson, Pascal Rophe, Clark Rundell, Pierre Andre-Valade and Peter Weigold and musicians who have performed his works include Colin Alexander, Claire Booth, Pietro Doronzo, Andrew Forbes, Nathanael Gubler, Rolf Hind, Melinda Maxwell, Sara Minelli, Craig Ogden, Lauren Redhead, Jean Rigby, Alastair Stout, Ryan Wigglesworth and Anian Wiedner.
His works have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as well as in Belgium, Japan, Sweden, Romania, Italy and USA. Recordings include Caught, Testament, tss’k’haa and 50 Florentine Breaths. In October 2023 October House Records released recordings of Menhir, Ash Relics and Templum.
His eclectic group of teachers included Simon Bainbridge, Simon Holt, David Lumsdaine, Malcolm Williamson and Peter Weigold, alongside Louis Andriessen and Lou Harrison.
Jonathan has taught at the Royal College of Music since 2005, leading the Masters composition course from 2007 - 2022. From 2013 - 2020 he oversaw the Composer's Studio Ensemble, conducting contemporary music specialists in performances of dozens of student pieces and from 2009 - 2022 he led the weekly RCM Free Improvisation Group. Prior to joining the RCM he taught at King's College London and the Purcell School. He's guest lectured at Boston University, City University, Gresham's College, Oxford University, RAM and RNCM and has had residencies at the Ionian University in Corfu (2016 and 2017) and at the Milan Conservatoire (2023). He's led educational projects for the South Bank and from 2007 - 2012 co-led the Leverhulme LPO Young Composer's scheme with Mark Anthony Turnage. Having been awarded a Fellowship by the RCM in 2018, Jonathan was appointed Head of Composition in 2022. In 2024 the RCM awarded him a Professorial Chair in Composition. His works are published by Composers Edition and Ricordi.