Seán Doran CV

Seán Doran CV

2012 –

Awarded Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts, Ulster Univeristy (2017)

Founder & Co-Artistic Director (DoranBrowne)

  • Happy Days:Enniskillen International Beckett Festival (Founded 2012). Annual festival
  • Lughnasa FrielFest (Founded 2015) Annual festival in Northern Ireland (Derry, Omagh) and Republic Of Ireland (Donegal)
  • A Wilde Weekend by Lough Ernest, Enniskillen (2015)
  • Comment C’est: Paris Beckett Festival (2016)

Some Artist & Event Highlights: Berliner Ensemble, Maguy Marin Dance Company, Robert Wilson, Heiner Goebbels, Steve McQueen, Tacita Dean, Maxine Peake, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Out of Joint, Pierre Laurent Aimard, Ian Bostridge, Sir John Tomlinson, Julius Drake, Mecorre Quartet, Gavin Bryars, New York Yiddish Rep, Toby Jones, Rory Kinnear, Peter Stein, Hilliard Ensemble, Lisa Dwan, Antony Gormley, Atom Egoyan, Imogen Stubbs, Tamsin Greig.

PREVIOUS (1998-2006)

Co-Artistic Director (DoranBrowne)
Sgt. Pepper at 50 Festival, May 25-June 16 2017
Commissioned by Culture Liverpool, Liverpool City Council
13 World Premiere Commissions

Artistic Highlights: Mark Morris Pepperland (Times Show of the Year 2017), Judy Chicago Fixing a Hole mural with Tate Liverpool, Jeremy Deller With a little help from my friends, Milapfest Within You Without You Beatles Ragafest, 20 Stories High Theatre & Improbable Theatre’s She’s leaving home, Hurricane Films & Frank Cottrell-Boyce A Day in the Life (24 zero hours), D J Spooky Getting Better?, Meow Meow, Christophe Berthonneau & Groupe F Suspended Time/Lucy in the sky with diamonds fireworks, Meow Meow Rita Riot Rita Dreaming Rita Requiem, The Performers of Liverpool with John Cage Trust Mr Kite’s Musicircus at Aintree Racecourse.

Co-Artistic Director (DoranBrowne)
Opening Year Programme, Seamus Heaney HomePlace (2016-17)
Celebratory Opening Weekend & 12 Books 12 Months programme

Artistic Director & Chief Executive
English National Opera, 2003-2006

Artistic Highlights: Commissioned Anthony Minghella’s Madam Butterfly, Improbable Theatre/Philip Glass Satyagraha, Deborah Warner’s Britten Death in Venice, ENO at Glastonbury.

Leadership Legacies: Secured SKY sponsorship £5m/5 years, O2 sponsorship £500,000 for Glastonbury Valkyrie & Trafalgar Square La Boheme; artistic programme during his tenure secured all eight Olivier Award opera nominations.

Artistic Director & Chief Executive

Perth International Arts Festival, Australia 1998-2003

Artistic Highlights: Commissioned Antony Gormley’s Inside Australia (51 sculptures in Australian desert), Deborah Warner’s The Angel Project, Merce Cunningham Dance Company on the beach, Steve Reich operas, Philip Glass,

Legacies: Increased festival budget by 60% in four years ($6.8m-$10.8m), founded the annual writers festival and annual contemporary music venue (the leading two commercial cash cows for the festival today), helped launch Western Australia’s first Aboriginal Survival Concert and commissioned the first Aboriginal Festival opening with Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company and helped establish the Joondalup Picture Pines outdoor cinema, produced Australia’s first home grown Gotterdammerung (Wagner) and initiated 9 mini festivals across the Perth suburbs and region including Mandurah, Albany, Kalgoorlie, Margaret River & Broome.

Changed festival title from Festival of Perth to Perth International Arts Festival in 2000.

Awarded the Centenary Medal by the Australian Government.

EARLY CAREER (1985-1998)

Artistic Director
Belfast Festival at Queen’s, Ireland 1996-1998
Ireland’s largest multi-arts festival

Artistic Highlights: Presented first visits to Ireland by Willem Dafoe & Wooster Group, Robert Wilson, Bill Viola, Camerata Salzburg, Trisha Brown, Carlos Santos, Ian Bostridge, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, DV8 Dance Company.

Other Artistic Highlights: exhibitions by Yoko Ono, David Byrne Anne Sophie Von Otter, Nick Cave & Kylie Minogue, Brian Eno, Martin Amis, E Annie Proulx.

Other achievements: Helped secure Guinness annual sponsorship increase from £30,000 to £100,000, helped double budget £600K to £1.2m, established the Folk, Jazz and Comedy Weekenders, founded the BT Belfast Talks literature series, helped to found the Young at Art Childrens Festival and the Belfast Fringe Festival.

Artistic Director & Chief Executive
1995 UK Year of Literature & Writing 1994-1996
The largest literary festival ever presented – An Arts Council of Great Britain initiative.

Honorary President US President Jimmy Carter, Honorary Patrons Saul Bellow, Nadine Gordimer, Jane Campion, Salman Rushdie, Edna O’Brien, Bono, Bjork and Paul Simon. The Festival Year comprised 26 mini festivals with over 800 writers.

Chief Executive, Armagh Together, 1993

Programme Director
IMPACT 92, Derry-Londonderry, 1991-1993

Artistic Highlights: Maly Theatre St. Petersburg’s Gaudeamus, Royal National Theatre’s Fuente Ovejuna directed by Richard Eyre, Royal Shakespeare Company’s Electra with Fiona Shaw and Deborah Warner, American National Theatre of the Deaf, Opera Factory’s Poppea, Cheek by Jowl’s As You Like It,

Arts Officer, Luton Central Library, Bedfordshire County Council.
1989-1990

Artistic Highlights: T for Tianamen, Catherine Yass installation, North Meets South Exhibition (18 artists from southern hemisphere).

Co-Author, first Rough Guide to Ireland. 1988-1989

Freelance reviewing for The Independent and the Times 1987-88

Artistic Director and conductor, Innererklang Music Theatre

Patron Simon Rattle, London, 1985-1990

Conducted or produced: Luciano Berio’s A Ronne (choreographed by Matthew Bourne), Hans Werner Henze’s El Cimmaron, The Threepenny Opera, Maxwell Davies Eight Songs for A Mad King and Vesalii Icones (with Bill Luther)

EDUCATION

University of East Anglia, BA Hons, 1980-83
Clarinet tuition at the Guilhall School of Music and Drama

St. Columb’s College, Derry: 13 O’Levels, 2 A’Levels