The renowned conductor Dame Jane Glover, who grew up in Monmouth, made a rare visit to the town on Saturday (3 October) for an event entitled An Audience with Jane Glover,.

Organised by Monmouth Choral Society, she talked about her life in music in conversation with the choir’s director of music, Steven Kings. The event was held at Monmouth Haberdashers’ School’s Centre for Performing Arts.

Since 2009 Jane Glover has been the choral society’s president, and as a teenager she was herself a member of the choir. Her father, Robert Finlay Glover, was headmaster of the Boys’ School between 1959 and 1977, and in 1990 she presided at the opening ceremony for the Glover Music School in Monmouth, named in memory of her father.

Jane Glover recently completed her 50th anniversary as a conductor, and during the evening she recalled her debut at the Wexford Festival, where she conducted her own edition of Cavalli’s opera L’Eritrea. Since then she has appeared with numerous opera companies around the world, and she remains in demand on the international opera stage. Recently she was Visting Professor of Opera at the University of Oxford, where she was a student after leaving Monmouth Girls’ School.

She has conducted all the major symphony and chamber orchestras in Britain, as well as orchestras in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. In recent years she has been particularly in demand in the United States and Canada, where she has appeared with all the leading orchestras. She is the principal guest conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony in Texas, and recent engagements have also taken her to Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Minnesota and Kansas City.

Apart from her many musical accomplishments, the audience heard her talk with tenderness and compassion about the friendships that she has made throughout her life. She recalled the vital role played by Helen Bucknall, the wife of a teacher at Monmouth Boys’ School, who helped her pass music A-level, without which her path in life would have been very different. Her sense of humour was also very much in evidence during the evening, as when she recalled her first encounter, as a teenager, with the composer Benjamin Britten, at the door of her parent’s house. She also talked warmly about the many occasions when she has conducted performances at the BBC Proms.

The evening was introduced by the Lord Lieutenant of Gwent, Brigadier Robert Aitken CBE, who is the choral society’s patron. Appropriately, among the evening’s guests was the successor to Jane Glover’s father, the current headmaster of Monmouth Haberdashers’ School, Melvyn Roffe.

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