Jane Glover


Dame Jane Alison Glover is a British conductor and musicologist.

Early life

Born in Helmsley, Glover attended Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls. Her father, Robert Finlay Glover, MA, was headmaster of Monmouth School and it was through this connection that she was able to meet Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears aged only 16. She later described the meeting:
"I was beside myself with the prospect of hearing them perform. On the afternoon of the concert, the doorbell rang at the headmaster's house, and I went to answer it. There on the step, looking for all the world as they did on one of my record sleeves, distinguished, elegant and with the kindliest of eyes, were Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten my hero."

After reading Music as an undergraduate at St Hugh's College, Oxford, she went on to complete a DPhil on 17th-century Venetian Opera. Dr Glover has published a 1978 biography of Francesco Cavalli, and included material derived from her doctoral thesis.
In 1990, after a sizeable donation, the Glover Music School was opened at Monmouth School by Jane Glover, in memory of her father. Her brother, Richard Glover, served as Master Haberdasher.

Career

Glover first conducted at Oxford as a student, in a production of Athalia, and went on to conduct the first performance in modern times of Cavalli's Rosinda for the Oxford University Opera Club in October 1973.
She made her professional debut at the Wexford Festival in 1975 with the first modern performance of Eritrea and joined Glyndebourne in 1979. She was music director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera from 1981 to 1985. She has been both principal conductor and principal guest conductor of the Huddersfield Choral Society and continues to work with the choir on a semi-regular basis. She conducted the world premiere of Il Giardino by Stephen Oliver at the Batignano Festival in 1977.
During the 1980s, Glover regularly broadcast on BBC Television including hosting the television series Orchestra with Jane Glover in 1983 and Mozart – His Life with Music in 1985.
Glover was the music director of the London Mozart Players from 1984 to 1991. Glover was a BBC governor from 1990 to 1995. She conducted the Ken Russell production of Princess Ida for ENO at the Coliseum Theatre in 1992. Since 2002, she has been Music Director of the Chicago ensemble Music of the Baroque.
Glover is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music and was the artistic director of opera at the Royal Academy of Music between 2009 and 2016. On 18 March 2011, she conducted the world première of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's opera Kommilitonen! at the Academy.
In December 2013, she became the third woman ever to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera of New York, leading Mozart's The Magic Flute in the production of Julie Taymor. She has been a regular collaborator with choreographer Mark Morris.
In January 2023, Glover first guest-conducted the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. In February 2024, the FWSO announced the appointment of Glover as its next principal guest conductor, the first female conductor ever named to the post, effective 1 August 2025.

Honours

Glover was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2003 New Year Honours and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to music.

Writings and recordings

In September 2005, Macmillan published Glover's book Mozart's Women: His Family, His Friends, His Music. The book investigates the extent to which the women surrounding Mozart – his mother, sister, wife and his wife's sisters – influenced his development as a composer. In 2018, her Handel in London: The Making of a Genius, was published, which charts the composer's work as "immigrant musical genius, composer, performer and impresario", placed in the social and political context of London of the time.
Her recordings include Cavalli, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Britten.

Works

  • Handel in London: The Making of a Genius. Pan Macmillan, 2018..
  • Mozart in Italy: Coming of Age in the Land of Opera, Picador, 2024.

    Interviews

  • , September 25, 2000
Category:1949 births
Category:Living people
Category:BBC governors
Category:People from Monmouth, Wales
Category:People educated at Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls
Category:Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford
Category:Fellows of St Hugh's College, Oxford
Category:British women conductors
Category:British choral conductors
Category:Music directors
Category:British performers of early music
Category:Women performers of early music
Category:21st-century British biographers
Category:Academics of the Royal Academy of Music
Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Category:21st-century British conductors
Category:British music educators
Category:British women music educators
Category:21st-century British women musicians
Category:Cavalli scholars
Category:Handel scholars
Category:Mozart scholars
Category:Women music directors