Jonathan Brown
Jonathan was a chorister at New College, Oxford, a music scholar at Sherborne School, and a choral scholar at Royal Holloway College, from where he embarked on a professional singing and teaching career. Having been a Lay Vicar in Chichester Cathedral, he was appointed as a Lay Clerk in Winchester Cathedral under David Hill and then, subsequently, Andrew Lumsden.Jonathan has toured, recorded and broadcast extensively with a number of choirs, touring Australia, the USA and across Europe (including Gottingen, Hanover and the Frauenkirche in Dresden, all with Nicholas McGegan) and, domestically, has sung with the BBC Singers in two Promenade Concerts with the late Richard Hickox and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. In June 2007, as Director of Music at Pangbourne College, he conducted a service from the Falkland Islands Memorial Chapel in the presence of the late Queen, the Prime Minister and assembled dignitaries, commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Falkland Islands conflict, which was broadcast live globally on BBC1 and on national radio. In 2014, Jonathan was appointed the Director of Music at Malvern College.
On the solo platform his repertoire ranges from Monteverdi to Lutoslawski, and he has performed with a number of orchestras – most notably Florilegium, the Philharmonia, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonietta. Selected repertoire includes Bach’s B minor Mass, St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, Britten’s Noye’s Fludde (Noah), Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, Haydn’s Creation, Vaughan Williams’ 5 Mystical songs and Dona Nobis Pacem, and various smaller-scale works by Mozart, Puccini, Schubert and Rossini, as well as the requiems of Faure, Brahms, Mozart, Durufle and Howells. He has performed extensively around the world, including the major cities of Australia, San Francisco, Atlanta, Frankfurt, Florence and, domestically, in several Cathedrals across England and the Royal Albert Hall.
As a conductor, Jonathan has been the Musical Director of Malvern Festival Chorus since 2018, performing with them works ranging from JS Bach to Howard Goodall and Karl Jenkins via Handel, Mozart and Brahms, Vaughan Williams, Faure, Durufle and Janacek. He is regarded as a creative and challenging programmer. He was also the Chorus Master for the National Schools Symphony Orchestra in their performance of Verdi’s Requiem at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall in which Malvern Festival Chorus participated. He works regularly with professional orchestras and international soloists including Clare Rutter, Carys Lane, Richard Coxon, Lynton Atkinson, Stephen Gadd, Quentin Hayes and Giles Underwood.
Jonathan is married to Rebecca who is in great demand as a singing teacher, and they have two daughters – Jessica and Helen – who are both musicians but who both followed scientific pathways and who now hold PhDs. Molly, the cocker spaniel, was a most promising vocalist in her younger years, whilst her daughter, Saffy, has yet to declare her musical intentions, but is following in her mother’s musical footsteps and particularly enjoys brass music…
