27 February 2020: English National Opera (ENO) is pleased to announce that Gillian Moore has joined the Artistic Committee with immediate effect.

Gillian is Director of Music at Southbank Centre and has worked bringing music and the arts to the London community for more than 35 years. She was Education Officer at the London Sinfonietta for ten years before becoming Head of Education at Southbank Centre where she developed the integration of educational and artistic activity.

She was awarded a CBE for her services to music in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours. She had previously been awarded an MBE for her services to British Music in 1994, and returned to the London Sinfonietta as Artistic Director in 1998. Before being made Director of Music, Gillian returned to Southbank Centre as Head of Contemporary Culture and Head of Classical Music at the organisation. She also writes and broadcasts regularly about music.

ENO’s Committees offer advice, advocacy and expertise across the organisation.

Gillian Moore says: ‘ENO has always been close to my heart. I’m looking forward to working with Annilese, Martyn and Stuart and getting closer to the company in this exciting new era.’

Commenting on the appointment, ENO Chair, Dr Harry Brunjes says, ‘We are all thrilled that Gillian Moore will be joining the ENO Artistic Committee to support Annilese Miskimmon (Artistic Director), Martyn Brabbins (Music Director) and Louise Jeffreys (Deputy Chair). ENO will undoubtedly benefit from Gillian’s great knowledge and expertise.’

Martyn Brabbins, Music Director, ENO says ‘Gillian has been a brilliant and inspirational artistic presence in the musical life of the UK for the whole of my Conducting life. I have always had enormous respect for her integrity, her artistic judgement and the depth and breadth of her musical knowledge. ENO is very fortunate to welcome her as an active member of the Artistic Committee.’

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Notes to Editors 

English National Opera is the national opera company dedicated to one simple aim: making opera for everyone. We sing in English to be as accessible to the widest possible audience, as well as offering tickets for as little as ten pounds and we create opera that feels different, more theatrical and creatively daring. We’ve been doing this to an internationally recognised standard since being founded in 1931 as Sadler’s Wells Opera.

We are determined to open up the genre: nearly half of our audiences in the 2018/19 season were first-time bookers and this season more than 10% of our bookings have been by under 30’s. Our learning and participation programme ENO Baylis has reached more than 20,000 school children and community groups, and we have brought opera into schools, allowing more than 5000 schoolchildren from schools with a higher than average black or minority ethnic (BAME) background representation to experience opera. Our talent development programme continues to nurture the careers of singers (the ENO Harewood Artist programme) and of conductors (the Charles Mackerras Fellowship). We also give free tickets to Under 18s in our balcony for opening nights, Friday and Saturday performances.

Last season, the proportion of our audience with a BAME background increased from 4% to 10%. In January of last year, we announced that we would be recruiting four new members of our Chorus from a BAME background, as well as four BAME Director Observerships. This year, we announced that we will also be recruiting five new BAME string players to continue working towards our aim of making the opera industry more accessible and representative of the society in which we live.

Through our ongoing support and development of British talent, 85% of the cast in the 2018-19 season were British or British trained, up 5% from the previous season. That’s important to us and is fundamental to our ethos of giving new talent their break.

ENO is about opera for everyone.