Jon works on music projects as an arranger, conductor and composer/songwriter. With a professional portfolio that includes Music Directorships in London and Scotland, guest conducting engagements around the UK, and songwriting and arranging projects with leading indie artists in Canada and the UK, he specialises in contemporary repertoire, revitalising the relationship between music and audiences.
2021/2 will see the release of five albums with Jon credited as conductor, songwriter or arranger, notably including Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian’s album Welcome Party, with members of London Symphony Orchestra. Live performance projects include his work as an arranger for award-winning RnB artist Keonté Beals with Symphony Nova Scotia (Canada), and as MD for trad Scots artist Ainsley Hamill with the Scottish Freelancers Orchestra. Jon is working on an album of original material with longstanding collaborator, John Miller.
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 encompassing rock and RnB, through to acoustic singer-songwriters and traditional music. Besides orchestral work in Canada and Scotland, during the pandemic he has directed remote sessions for projects with Martha Bean, Aaron Xavier and Clementine Duo set to be released in 2022.
As Co-Artistic Director of London’s Octandre Ensemble, Jon has been at the helm of ten critically-lauded seasons. A highlight of 2019/20 was 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. During the pandemic, the work won the RPS Prize for large-scale Composition. 2022 launches with the group’s second collaboration with composer Jack Sheen following the recording of his performance installation Sub in 2021, and two recording projects planned for later in the year.
The Ensemble has earned a strong reputation for its performances of new music exploring timbre and ritual, with BBC Radio 3 broadcasts, CD releases, and numerous premieres under Jon’s directorship, notably including Sinan Savaskan's BASCA Award-winning Many Stares… (Module 30), and the UK Premieres of Christian Mason’s Layers of Love and Claude Vivier’s Samarkand.
In Scotland, Jon co-directs the award-winning Nevis Ensemble, a chamber orchestra working from the foundational belief in "music for everyone, everywhere”. The 40-piece orchestra plays to the very young, the very old, and those who face challenges in their lives, in settings as diverse as the summit of Ben Nevis, the Glasgow Night Shelter, psychiatric and dementia care settings, community gardens, children’s playgrounds and swimming pools. Now approaching its 4th year, the orchestra has played over 200 performances to nearly 30,000 people.