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The Welsh conductor, choral conductor and organist, Edward Elwyn Jones studied music at Cambridge University (Class of 2000), where he was Organ Scholar of Emmanuel College (Class of 1998), and served as conductor of three university orchestras. He earned his Masters of Music in orchestral conducting from Mannes College of Music in New York City (Class of 2002), where he was the recipient of the Felix Salzer Memorial Award, and has worked with William Christie, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Christopher Hogwood, Nicholas McGegan and Gil Rose.
Upon moving to the USA in 1998, Edward Elwyn Jones served firstly as Organ Scholar and then as Assistant Organist in the Memorial Church at Harvard University. Musical posts he has held include: Chorus Master and Assistant Conductor of Regina Opera Company (2001-2003); Assistant Organist of Christ Church United Methodist on Park Avenue in New York City (2000-2003); Music Director of Reykjavic Summer Opera Festival (2002-2003); Assistant Conductor and Chorus Master of Opera Boston (2006-2011); Music Director of Intermezzo Opera (2011-2014).
Hailed by The Boston Music Intelligencer as a “musicianly and obviously skilled conductor,” Edward Elwyn Jones enjoys a career in the operatic, orchestral and choral genres as conductor, organist and choirmaster. In April 2003, he was appointed Gund University Organist and Choirmaster of the Memorial Church at Harvard University, where he leads the 180-year old Harvard University Choir in its daily choral services, broadcasts, tours, commissions, and recordings, as well as acts as Music Director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus and plays organ for Harvard University services and events. In addition to performances, he has overseen the publication of a new university hymnal, the installation of two new pipe organs in the Memorial Church, and has commissioned works from some of America’s most prominent contemporary composers, including Alice Parker, Daniel Pinkham and Emma Lou Diemer.
In 2015, Edward Elwyn Joneswas appointed Music Director of Lowell House Opera - New England's longest-running opera company. He is a frequent collaborator with Yale Schola Cantorum and has appeared as a guest conductor with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Grand Harmonie, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Boston Camerata, Emmanuel Music (Boston), Longwood Symphony Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra. He has focused particularly on conducting opera, which he has pursued with Iceland’s Reykjavic Summer Opera Festival, Opera Boston, Lowell House Opera Society, Harvard Early Music Society, and Mannes Opera, among others. When directing Grand Harmonie from the fortepiano, The Boston Globe declared “The orchestra was tight and energetic…Conductor Edward Elwyn Jones garnished the overall brisk pace with enough lilt to keep the phrases airborne." This season, the “pointed and poignant” (The Boston Globe) conductor embarks on a spring sabbatical in residence at King’s College London. |
