Brahms Piano Concerto 1 & Dvořák 8

Jonathon Heyward is forging a career as one of the most exciting conductors on the international scene. He is music director designate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (beginning in the 2023-24 Season), and chief conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie.

Jonathon’s recent UK guest conducting highlights include debuts and re-invitations with the London Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at the BBC Proms. In continental Europe, recent debuts include the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Basel Symphony, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Brussels Philharmonic, SymfonieOrkest Vlaanderen, Antwerp Symphony, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, and Kristiansand Symphony. This season, Jonathon debuts with the Musikkollegium Winterthur, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Lahti Symphony, MDR-Sinfonieorchester, and the National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin, Ireland. Most recently in the United States, Jonathon debuted at Grant Park and Mostly Mozart Music Festivals, and with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. In 2021, he made his Wolf Trap debut conducting the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and this was followed further debuts with the Atlanta, Detroit, and San Diego Symphony Orchestras.

Jonathon made his Royal Opera House debut with Hannah Kendall’s Knife of Dawn, having also conducted Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, as well as the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s Wake in a production for the Birmingham Opera Company.

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Jonathon began cello lessons at age ten and started conducting while at school. He studied at the Boston Conservatory of Music, where he became assistant conductor of the opera department and the Boston Opera Collaborative. He received postgraduate lessons from Sian Edwards at London’s Royal Academy of Music. Before leaving the Academy, he was appointed assistant conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, where he was mentored by Sir Mark Elder and became music director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra.

Jonathon’s commitment to education and community outreach work deepened during his three years with the Hallé and has flourished since he started as chief conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. He is equally committed to including new music within his imaginative concert programs.

Named by The Economist as one of Twenty Living Polymaths, Sir Stephen Hough combines a distinguished career and a longstanding international following as a pianist, composer, and writer. The first classical pianist to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honors 2014 and was awarded a Knighthood for Services to Music in the Queen’s Birthday honors 2022.

In the 2022-23 Season, Stephen performs more than 90 concerts in five continents with return engagements across Europe and the United States. He is a regular guest at leading music festivals and performs recitals across the globe.

Mr. Hough’s extensive discography of more than 60 CDs on the Hyperion label has garnered international awards, including the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, several Grammy nominations, and eight Gramophone Awards, including Record of the Year and the Gold Disc. His most recent recording, Mompou’s Musica callada, will be released in spring 2023.

As a composer, Mr. Hough has written for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble, and solo piano. Recent commissions include a work for the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, a piece that was performed by all 30 competitors, and his String Quartet No. 1 Les Six Recontres commissioned by the Takacs Quartet. His music is published by Josef Weinberger LTD.

Mr. Hough’s memoir Enough: Scenes from Childhood, will be published by Faber & Faber this spring. It follows his collection of essays Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More, which won a 2020 Royal Philharmonic Society Award and was named one of the Financial Times’ Book of the Year 2019. His first novel, The Final Retreat, was published in 2018. He wrote more than 600 articles for his blog in The Telegraph, which became one of the most influential forums for cultural discussion.

Mr. Hough lives in London and is an honorary member of the Royal Philharmonic Society, a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music and at Oxford University’s Lady Margaret Hall, holds the International Chair of Piano Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, and serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School in New York.