Resident Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the London Mozart Players since 2022, together they celebrated the orchestra’s 75th birthday this season with an array of starry soloists, recreating Mozart’s 1783 Vienna concert and continuing their community music-making to celebrate Croydon’s year as Borough of Culture.
Guesting highlights in 23/24 have included debuts with the NDR Elbphilharmonie, Tonkuenstlerorchester at the Grafenegg Festival and with the BBC Symphony, a return to the London Philharmonic, and in April another tour with Philharmonic Brass (musicians from Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras) culminating in a televised concert in the Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg. He has also returned to the Belgian National, Residentie Orkest, Estonian National, and conducted the Bonn Beethovenorchester, Ostrobothnian Chamber, and the orchestra of Opera North all for the first time. Last season he debuted with the Tokyo Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony, made multiple visits to the Salzburg Mozarteumorchester, and returned to the Hallé Orchestra and to the Britten Sinfonia at the Aldeburgh Festival.
His 2021 Strauss and Franck recording with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie was described as “irresistible” by Musicweb International. He has also recorded CDs for future release with the London Symphony Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony (both 2022), and with the London Mozart Players, Academy of St Martin in the Fields and BBC Scottish Symphony (all 2023).
For the past 15 years Jonathan has been Artistic Director of the Northern Chords Festival based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Passionate about unearthing little-known composers and championing new works, Jonathan has commissioned several premieres by young composers such as Vlad Maistorovici, Jack Sheen and Freya Waley Cohen. Jonathan’s 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. He was then invited by Paavo Järvi to conduct the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, where he has since become a regular guest.
Before taking up conducting he was a founder member and the cellist of the Busch Trio, performing regularly at the Wigmore Hall, across Europe and on BBC Radio 3, and still plays chamber music on occasion. Bloxham began his musical training at the age of 8 with a local cello teacher from the Gateshead Schools Music Service, before studying at the Yehudi Menuhin School and then the Royal College of Music with Thomas Carrol, where he won several prestigious awards including the Suggia Gift and the RCM Cello Prize. Bloxham went on to complete a Master’s degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Louise Hopkins, where he made his concerto debut at the Berlin Philharmonie in 2012 and studied conducting with Sian Edwards, Michael Seal, Nicolas Pasquet and Paavo Järvi.
514 words – 23/24 biography, as of 10 April 2024. Not to be altered without the permission of Intermusica Artists’ Management.