Sean Doran

Seán Doran is an artistic producer, in international multi-arts festivals and events. His productions have spanned several countries and two continents in opera, literature, visual arts and the performing arts.  Formerly the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the English National Opera (2003-2006), he is currently Artistic Director & Chief Executive of Arts Over Borders (Ireland) and Co-Director of the ideas and programming consultancy DoranBrowne (London).

In the past decade, Seán Doran co-curated with his long-time artistic partner, Liam Browne, Liverpool’s Sgt. Pepper at 50 Festival (2017) delivering thirteen stand-out world premiere events to the 13 iconic album tracks (The Times accorded his Mark Morris Pepperland dance commission as the 2017 Show of the Year).  In Ireland from 2012, he has founded the world’s exclusive multi-arts festivals celebrating Irish writers Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett (Happy Days), Brian Friel (Lughnasa FrielFest) and Oscar Wilde (A Wilde Weekend by Lough Ernest) and Northern Ireland’s first international multi-arts festivals since 1962.

As Artistic Director, Seán Doran curated both the largest and longest running multi-arts festivals in Ireland (Belfast, 1997 & 1998) and Australia (Perth, 2000-2003) and the largest ever literature festival staged in the world, the UK Year of Literature & Writing 1995. In 2001, the Australian Government awarded Seán its Centenary Medal and in 2017 Ulster University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts.