Esther Jones is an experienced choral clinician and conductor who is in regular demand as an adjudicator, teacher and workshop leader. She studied music at Oxford University and choral conducting at the Royal Academy of Music as a postgraduate, where she was the first Open Academy Fellow and now teaches part-time. Alongside this role, she is currently Acting Artistic Director of London Youth Choir and Deputy Musical Director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. She is also a collaborator on the ‘Created out of mind’ project, which draws together scientists, artists and broadcasters at the Wellcome Collection in London to produce research and artwork related to dementia.
Esther has also worked as Chorus Master for conductors including Marin Alsop (Britten’s War Requiem), John Rutter (Christmas concert with RPO), Ben Parry (Monteverdi’s Vespers), Simon Halsey (Dove’s There was a child), James Morgan (Morgan/Pochin’s Invictus) and Eric Whitacre (selected choral works). Other projects include preparing London Youth Choir for a performance of Britten’s War Requiem in the BBC Proms and a recording of Chilcott’s The Angry Planet (with BBC Singers and the London Bach Choir) and NYCGB for War Requiem at Royal Festival Hall (awarded 2015 RPS Music Award for Learning & Participation) and Mendelssohn’s A midsummer’s night dream at the Royal Opera House in 2014.
Esther has directed music on numerous CD recordings and digital downloads, as well as on live broadcasts on BBC Radio 1, 2, 3 & 4. She directed Brighton Festival Youth Choir on the soundtrack of Brighton Rock starring Helen Mirren and produced in association with BBC films.
Other recent engagements leading a workshop day for visually-impaired conductors at the Wigmore Hall; directing massed primary school children and the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment in Vivaldi’s Gloria; working as a tutor alongside Gareth Malone on BBC TV’s The Choir: Sing while you work 2 programme; directing music for A world I loved starring Vanessa Redgrave in the Brighton International Festival 2012; directing music for BBC Radio 4's Sunday Worship and appearing as Guest Reviewer on BBC Radio 3’s CD Review programme.
Esther has directed numerous major choral/orchestral works with professional orchestras on both period and modern instruments including Orff’s Carmina Burana (Lincoln Cathedral 2016), Britten’s St Nicolas (St Giles, Cripplegate 2014), Britten’s A Children’s Crusade (Aldeburgh International Festival 2014), Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Southwark Cathedral 2014), Handel’s Dixit Dominus (St James, Piccadilly 2012 & Versailles Festival 2012), Alexander L’Estrange’s Zimbe (Nairobi 2012), Mozart’s Mass in C minor (Windsor 2011), Faure Requiem (St Botolph without Bishopsgate, London 2011), Haydn’s Creation (St Martin-in-the-Fields 2011), Haydn’s The Seasons (Eton College & St Martin-in-the-Fields 2010), Mendelssohn’s Elijah (Eton College 2010), Handel’s Esther (London Handel Festival 2008), Monteverdi’s Vespers (Dulwich 2007 & City Temple 2016), Brahms Requiem (Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford 1998), Handel’s Messiah (Keble Chapel, Oxford 1997).
Previous choral posts include Musical Director of UBS Choral Society, Director of Brighton Festival Youth Choir, Chorus Director of Slough Philharmonic Society, Musical Director of Stoneleigh Choral Society and Assistant Director of the RSCM Millennium Youth Choir. Other former roles include Editor of Church Music Quarterly, Director of Voice for Life & Church Music Skills programmes for the Royal School of Church Music.
