His conducting career was launched when he took up the Assistant Conductor position at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 2016-2018 under Mirga Grazynte-Tyla, where he conducted a wide range of repertoire, closing their 16/17 season at Symphony Hall, and reinvited for May 2020. A Summer concert with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie led to a recording project and then to subscription concerts in Bremen and at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. After taking over Rusalka rehearsals at the DSO Berlin for Robin Ticciati (whom he had assisted at Glyndebourne), he has been invited back to conduct a studio concert in Autumn 2020.
Recent guest engagements have also included the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Basque National Orchestra and RTE Chamber. Last season he conducted the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Tapiola Sinfonietta, London Mozart Players and Manchester Camerata, and had been due to debut with the Shanghai Symphony, Guangzhou Symphony and China National Philharmonic (in Beijing). He looks forward to his Halle Orchestra and Tokyo Symphony debuts in the coming months.
Last season Jonathan conducted two performances and assisted on Rigoletto for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, leading immediately to reinvitations to conduct four performances of Puccini in 2020, and to his Glyndebourne main Summer season debut in 2021 with several performances of Verdi.
For the past 11 years Jonathan has been Artistic Director of the Northern Chords Festival based in his home town of Newcastle upon Tyne. Prior to taking up conducting he was a founder member and the cellist of the Busch Trio, performing regularly at the Wigmore Hall, Southbank and on BBC Radio 3. He won several prestigious awards whilst studying at the Royal College of Music, and made his concerto debut at the Berlin Philharmonie in 2012.
Passionate about contemporary music, Jonathan has commissioned several new works by young composers such as Vlad Maistorovici, Jack Sheen and Freya Waley Cohen. He has conducted the CBSO in a performance of Nitin Sawhney’s Animal Symphony which was broadcast on Sky Arts, and in May 2017 he conducted the premiere of Matthew Kaner’s Stranded for solo violin and chamber orchestra with violinist Benjamin Baker at the Europe Day Concert at St. John’s Smith Square, London.
Jonathan started his musical training at the age of 8 with a local cello teacher at his primary school in Gateshead. He then studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School & Royal College of Music with Thomas Carroll before completing a Master’s Degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Louise Hopkins. Jonathan has taken further conducting studies with Sian Edwards, Michael Seal, Nicolas Pasquet and Paavo Järvi.
2020/21 season / 518 words. Not to be altered without permission.