"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."
In 1990, after a sizeable donation, the Glover Music School[1] was opened at Monmouth School by Jane Glover, in memory of her father. Her brother, Richard Glover, served as MasterHaberdasher (2015–16).
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.[2]
She made her professional debut at the Wexford Festival in 1975 with the first modern performance of Eritrea[3] 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.[4] She conducted the world premiere of Il Giardino by Stephen Oliver at the Batignano Festival in 1977.[3]
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.
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.[8] She has been a regular collaborator with choreographer Mark Morris.
In January 2023, Glover first guest-conducted the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO). 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.[9]
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.[11]
