Jonathan Reekie

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Jonathan Reekie
CBE
Born
Jonathan Alistair James Reekie

(1964-09-02) 2 September 1964
London, England
OccupationArts administrator
EmployerSomerset House Trust

Jonathan Alistair James Reekie CBE (born 2 September 1964, in London) is a British arts administrator who has more than 30 years leadership experience across festivals, the arts and creative industries.

Since 2014, Reekie has been the Director of Somerset House Trust.[1] Under his tenure, 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.[2][3] Reekie has overseen the expansion of the cultural programme, including PJ Harvey's Recording in Progress with Artangel,[4] Björk Digital,[5] Big Bang Data,[6] Perfume,[7] and Get Up, Stand Up Now.[8] In 2019, Reekie co-curated with Sarah Cook[9] the exhibition 24/7, "a wake-up call to a non-stop world",[10][11] based on the book by Jonathan Crary.[12]

Career

Reekie's first job, when still a student, was working for the opera festival Musica nel Chiostro, Batignano, Italy.[13] On finishing his degree, he spent five seasons at Glyndebourne Opera.[14]

In 1991, he joined the Almeida Theatre as General Manager,[13] to work alongside the two artistic directors, Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid, and helped produce more than 30 theatre productions. While at the Almeida, Reekie founded a contemporary opera festival, Almeida Opera,[15] as a successor to the Almeida Festival, commissioning and producing more than 20 contemporary operas and concert series, including Thomas Adès's Powder Her Face, Jonathan Dove, Giorgio Battistelli and UK premieres by Heiner Goebbels, Olga Neuwirth, Per Nørgård.[16]

Reekie became Chief Executive of Aldeburgh Music in 1997,[17] though he continued to collaborate with Almeida Opera for a further five years. He stayed at Aldeburgh for 16 years,[18][19] collaborating with Festival Artistic Directors Thomas Adès, from 1999 to 2008,[20] and Pierre-Laurent Aimard from 2009.[21] Reekie was the architect of Aldeburgh's year-long Benjamin Britten Centenary programme in 2013, featuring most notably Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh beach[22] (described in The Guardian as "a remarkable, and surely unrepeatable achievement"),[23] and The Borough, created by Punchdrunk theatre company.[24][25] At Aldeburgh, Reekie produced more than 20 new operas and music theatre works, many commissioned, including from composers Richard Ayres, Harrison Birtwistle, Oliver Knussen and Anna Meredith. Repertoire opera productions included The Rape of Lucretia, directed by David McVicar;[26] The Rake's Progress, director Neil Bartlett;[27] and Death in Venice, director Yoshi Oida.[28] Other projects in Aldeburgh included SNAP – Art at the Aldeburgh Festival,[29][30] with Abigail Lane, Ryan Gander, Maggi Hambling, Sarah Lucas, Glenn Brown and many others artists associated with Suffolk, and Faster than Sound,[31] an experimental music programme including commissions from Mira Calix, Christian Marclay and Chris Watson, among numerous others. Reekie's tenure also saw considerable expansion of the artist development and education programme[32] and major capital projects, with the creation of the Pumphouse in 2000,[33] and in 2009, the new Hoffmann Building at Snape Maltings, including the 350-seat Britten Studio.[34]

After 16 years as chief executive at Aldeburgh Music, Reekie took up the post of director of Somerset House Trust in 2014,[35][36] and has been acknowledged for successfully transforming the Somerset House building from a "museum" attraction into a viable popular centre for contemporary art and the creative industries.[37][38]

Other roles

Reekie has been a trustee of Musica nel Chiostro,[13] the Arts Foundation,[39] and an adviser to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.[40][41]

Awards

In 2010, Reekie was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, London, and received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of East Anglia.[14]

Reekie was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours, for services to music.[42]

References

  1. "Jonathan Reekie CBE". London Design Biennale.
  2. Curtis, Nick (8 November 2018). "How Somerset House became London's cultural hub". Evening Standard.
  3. McCann, Charlie (16 January 2017). "Master builder". 1843.
  4. "Recording in Progress". artangel.org.uk.
  5. "Björk Digital". Somerset House. 7 October 2016.
  6. "Big Bang Data". Somerset House.
  7. "Perfume". Somerset House. 24 February 2017.
  8. "Get Up, Stand Up Now: Generations of Black Creative Pioneers". Somerset House. 10 June 2019.
  9. "24/7 Podcast". Somerset House. 24 January 2020.
  10. "24/7". Somerset House. 8 May 2019.
  11. Pownall, Augusta (29 October 2019). "50 artists respond to society's struggle to switch off at Somerset House's 24/7 exhibition". Dezeen. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
  12. Lezard, Nicholas (22 July 2014). "24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep by Jonathan Crary – review". The Guardian.
  13. "Jonathan Reekie". Therme Art.
  14. "Jonathan Reekie". Speakers for Schools.
  15. Almeida Opera, The New Music Theater: Seeing the Voice, Hearing the Body By Eric Salzman, Thomas Desi.
  16. "Thomas Adès". thomasades.com.
  17. Clark, Andrew (23 February 2007). "A window of opportunity for nurturing talent". ft.com.
  18. Cullingford, Martin (6 December 2013). "Jonathan Reekie to step down as chief executive of Aldeburgh Music". Gramophone.
  19. "Who can turn Aldeburgh skies back and begin again?". On an Overgrown Path. 10 December 2013.
  20. Clarke, Andrew (19 January 2008). "New director for Aldeburgh Festival". East Anglian Daily Times.
  21. Battle, Laura (23 May 2014). "Pierre-Laurent Aimard on Aldeburgh and Britten". ft.com.
  22. Clarke, Andrew (18 June 2013). "Gallery: Peter Grimes returns home to Aldeburgh in Britten's sea-faring tragic opera of a Suffolk fishing community". East Anglian Daily Times.
  23. Clements, Andrew (18 June 2013). "Grimes on the Beach - review". theguardian.com.
  24. "The Borough | Punchdrunk". punchdrunk.org.uk/. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
  25. Gardner, Lyn (11 June 2013). "The Borough – review". The Guardian.
  26. Kimberley, Nick (12 June 2001). "The Rape of Lucretia/CBSO, Aldeburgh Festival, Snape". The Independent. Archived from the original on 14 June 2022.
  27. "directing : opera and music". Neil Bartlett.
  28. Clements, Andrew (11 June 2007). "Review | Death in Venice, Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh". The Guardian.
  29. "SNAP Exhibition 2012, Art at Aldeburgh Festival 2012". snapaldeburgh.co.uk.
  30. Lewis, Tim (28 May 2011). "Sarah Lucas: 'Moving to the country was very magical somehow'". The Observer.
  31. "The other Aldeburgh". Financial Times.
  32. Wiegold, Peter; Kenyon, Ghislaine (10 June 2015). Beyond Britten: The Composer and the Community. Boydell & Brewer. ISBN 9781843839651 – via Google Books.
  33. Clarke, Andrew (20 June 2006). "Aldeburgh Festival blossoms". East Anglian Daily Times.
  34. Woodger, Andrew (7 May 2009). "More malted music". bbc.co.uk.
  35. "Jonathan Reekie moves to lead London's Somerset House Trust". classicaldaily.com. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
  36. "People | Moves: January 2014". Museums Journal. Museums Association. 31 December 2013. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
  37. Bailey, Martin (11 March 2025). "25 years on: how Somerset House became a centre for contemporary art". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
  38. Sehdev, Jeetendr (15 May 2025). "Somerset House At 25: A Masterclass In Cultural And Brand Relevance". Forbes. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
  39. "Trustees". The Arts Foundation.
  40. "Trustees, staff and advisors". Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
  41. "Jonathan Reekie". theorg.com. Retrieved 1 April 2026.
  42. "Queen's birthday honours list 2013: GCB, DBE and CBE". theguardian.com. 14 June 2013.