Jonathan Cole started composing soon after beginning piano lessons and went on to play the viola and organ. He studied composition with an eclectic range of teachers including Simon Bainbridge, Lou Harrison, Simon Holt David Lumsdaine, Peter Wiegold and Malcolm Williamson undertaking degrees at King's College London, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Royal Holloway, University of London where he completed a PhD in composition.
The works and ideas of Luigi Nono, John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen have had an important role the development of his musical ideas. He also draws inspiration from cinema (particularly Tarkovsky, Lynch and Herzog) and literature (Canetti, Bataille) as well as the environmental sounds of London.
Since winning the Royal Philharmonic Composition Prize in 1999 Cole has built up a continuing relationship with the London Sinfonietta who have premiered three pieces: Ouroboros I, Ouroboros II and Assassin Hair as well as giving performances of Marble Arch 4.30, Penumbra and Testament (British premiere). They have also toured Cole's work in Sweden and Switzerland and have recorded Testament with conductor Oliver Knussen. Both Ouroboros II and Testament were nominated for RPS awards. In 2003 George Benjamin chose Cole to be the recipient of a commission from the London Symphony Orchestra as part of the By George! Festival at the Barbican in London and in 2006 Mark Anthony Turnage programmed Temporale Distante as part of a festival with the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester.
Many ensembles and orchestras have programmed and commissioned Cole including the Asko Ensemble, BBC Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Composer’s Ensemble, G Project, Italian Radio Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, London Symphony Orchestra, Nash Ensemble, Nomad Ensemble, Ojai Festival Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and Tokyo Sinfonietta.
Among the performers he has written for are Stefan Asbury, George Benjamin, Claire Booth, Martyn Brabbins, Rolf Hind, Yasuaki Itakura, Oliver Knussen, Nicholas Kok, Brad Lubman, Odaline de la Martinez, Diego Masson, Melinda Maxwell, Sarah Nicholls, Craig Ogden, Jean Rigby, Pascal Rophe, Clark Rundell, Pierre-Andre Valade and Paul Watkins.
Many festivals have programmed his music including Aldeburgh, Basle, Bath, Brighton, Britten (Aldeburgh), Cheltenham, Chicago Music Now!, Hoxton, Klara (Brussels), Musica Nova (Strasbourg), Music Past and Present, Music for Today (South Bank), Music Today 21 (Tokyo), Oxford, Ojai (USA) and Spitalfields. In 1999, 2000 and 2002 his music was performed as part of the 'State of the Nation' Festival in London's South Bank Centre.
His works have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as well as in Belgium, Japan, Sweden and USA and CDs include Caught (Composer's Ensemble on NMC), Testament (London Sinfonietta) and tss’k’haa (Roderick Williams on NMC).
Jonathan Cole is a professor of composition at the Royal College of Music where he is leads the postgraduate programme. He has also taught at King's College, London and the Purcell School and is much in demand as a leader of education projects. His pieces are published exclusively by Ricordi and he has written educational works for the ABRSM and the GSMD. He is composer-in-association with the London Contemporary Orchestra.
