Jon works across musical genres as a composer, arranger and conductor, from his base in Scotland. His professional portfolio over the last 10 years encompasses artistic directorships; conducting opera, standard orchestral repertoire and new music; executive production; and composing/arranging for orchestras and singer-songwriters. He co-founded the Octandre Ensemble in 2011 with the composer Christian Mason, and was founding Co-Artistic Director of Glasgow's Nevis Ensemble until 2022. He conducts the Film Composers Lab at the RSNO.
Jon has a long-term and deep-rooted interest in musical value and meaning. He has published music analytic work, as well as collaborations in the social psychology of music, music education and embodied music cognition. Jon teaches at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
'Along came [Maeve] Gilchrist with ... a feast of melancholic optimism propelled by her febrile dexterity, flashes of wild glissandi and, in Jon Hargreaves’ and Pippa Murphy’s orchestral arrangement, poignant moments of impressionistic reflection’. (Ken Walton, The Scotsman)
Jon’s high-end, bespoke arrangements have brought artists acclaim in Q Magazine, BBC Radio 2 Rock and Reel Magazine, and elsewhere. He has arranged, conducted and directed strings and other orchestral backing for projects in styles from rock through acoustic singer-songwriters and trad to RnB. In the UK, recent collaborations with the composer Pippa Murphy have been performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Proms, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at Celtic Connections. Across the Atlantic, he has worked with Symphony Nova Scotia for live projects featuring RnB singer Keonté Beals, and the First-Nations Mi’kmaq duo, Ki'nuk.
'Denyer's hour-long masterpiece had a gripping flow that was sometimes thunderously aggressive, sometimes beguiling and often disturbing. I will be searching out the recording (Another Timbre) made by these excellent performers — the Octandre Ensemble directed by Christian Mason and Jon Hargreaves.'(Richard Morrison, The Times)
Jon co-founded London's Octandre Ensemble with the composer Christian Mason in 2011. The group focusses on music written after 1945, with an emphasis on timbre and ritual. Octandre’s purpose is to advance music exploration, working with composers to bring out deeper threads of meaning and connection within and between their works. The approach has led to a track record of unique, authoritatively curated performances of rarely heard music. Octandre's output takes many forms, amongst which CDs, concerts, digital and print resources, discussion fora and more. In November 2019 Jon conducted the World Premiere of Frank Denyer's singular epic The Fish that became the Sun at HCMF, as well as its release on Another Timbre records. The work went on to win the RPS Prize for Large-scale Composition.
As conductor
Screens (2023) - Frank Denyer - Octandre Ensemble - Another Timbre
Sub (2022) - Jack Sheen - Octandre Ensemble - SN Variations
Welcome Party (2021) - Cevanne Horrocks-Hopaiyan - Ziazan Horrocks-Hopaiyan, Trish Clowes, Tim Giles, London Symphony Orchestra
The Fish that Became the Sun (Songs of the dispossessed) (2018) - Frank Denyer - Benjamin Gilmore, Octandre Ensemble - Another Timbre
As arranger/composer
World of my Own (2024) - Chris Helme
First Light EP (2022) - Martha Bean
Clouds Behind the Moon (2022) - Alan Leach
As executive producer
24 Preludes and Fugues (2024) - Matt Dibble - Freddy Kempf - Divine Art Recordings
Screens (2023) - Frank Denyer - Octandre Ensemble - Another Timbre