Jonathan Lyness
Conductor
Jonathan was born in London and read music at Bristol University where he won both university undergraduate and British Academy postgraduate arts scholarships. He studied conducting with George Hurst since when his career has been built almost exclusively in opera. From 2002 - 2016 he conducted annually at Longborough Festival Opera where his repertoire ranged from Mozart to Britten including a critically acclaimed Janáček cycle: Jenůfa, Katya Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen. He has conducted regularly for West Green House Opera since 2000, most recently Ariadne auf Naxos, The Marriage of Figaro, Un ballo in maschera, Madama Butterfly, La Rondine, Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera, Bernstein’s Candide and Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.
He is Music Director of Opera Project, which he co-founded in 1993 and with whom he has conducted much of the standard repertoire at theatres and festivals across the UK. In 2016 he was appointed Music Director of Mid Wales Opera for whom he has conducted Eugene Onegin, The Magic Flute, Tosca, Semele, La Bohème, Macbeth, Hansel and Gretel, Dido and Aeneas and The Marriage of Figaro. In addition to conducting Jonathan has created some twenty reduced orchestrations of operas that are now performed widely across Europe, Asia, the USA and Canada. His stage work Mrs Peachum's Guide to Love and Marriage was performed across Wales by MWO in 2019, his chamber arrangement of Walton’s The Bear is published by OUP and was recently filmed by Opera Holland Park, and his arrangement of Montsalvatge's El Gato con botas is published by Peermusic, NY. He lives with his family in North-West Herefordshire.
Conductor
Jonathan was born in London and read music at Bristol University where he won both university undergraduate and British Academy postgraduate arts scholarships. He studied conducting with George Hurst since when his career has been built almost exclusively in opera. From 2002 - 2016 he conducted annually at Longborough Festival Opera where his repertoire ranged from Mozart to Britten including a critically acclaimed Janáček cycle: Jenůfa, Katya Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen. He has conducted regularly for West Green House Opera since 2000, most recently Ariadne auf Naxos, The Marriage of Figaro, Un ballo in maschera, Madama Butterfly, La Rondine, Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera, Bernstein’s Candide and Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.
He is Music Director of Opera Project, which he co-founded in 1993 and with whom he has conducted much of the standard repertoire at theatres and festivals across the UK. In 2016 he was appointed Music Director of Mid Wales Opera for whom he has conducted Eugene Onegin, The Magic Flute, Tosca, Semele, La Bohème, Macbeth, Hansel and Gretel, Dido and Aeneas and The Marriage of Figaro. In addition to conducting Jonathan has created some twenty reduced orchestrations of operas that are now performed widely across Europe, Asia, the USA and Canada. His stage work Mrs Peachum's Guide to Love and Marriage was performed across Wales by MWO in 2019, his chamber arrangement of Walton’s The Bear is published by OUP and was recently filmed by Opera Holland Park, and his arrangement of Montsalvatge's El Gato con botas is published by Peermusic, NY. He lives with his family in North-West Herefordshire.
