Biography
Jonathon Heyward is forging a career as one of the most exciting conductors on the international scene. He currently serves as Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, having made his debut with BSO in March 2022 in three performances that included the first-ever performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15. From summer 2024, Jonathon will become Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director of Lincoln Center’s Summer Orchestra. This appointment follows a highly acclaimed Lincoln Center debut with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in summer 2022, as part of their Summer for the City festival.
Currently in his third year as Chief Conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, in summer 2021, Jonathon took part in an intense, two-week residency with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain which led to a highly acclaimed BBC Proms debut. According to The Guardian, Jonathon delivered “a fast and fearless performance of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, in which loud chords exploded, repeating like fireworks in the hall’s dome, and the quietest passages barely registered. It was exuberant, exhilarating stuff.”
Jonathon’s recent and future guest conducting highlights in the United Kingdom include debuts and re-invitations with the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, The Hallé in Manchester, National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In continental Europe, amongst Jonathon’s recent and forthcoming debuts are collaborations with the Castilla y León Symphony, Galicia Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Basel Symphony, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Brussels Philharmonic, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Hamburg Symphony and MDR-Leipzig Symphony. Across the 23/24 season, Jonathon makes his Australian debut with the Melbourne Symphony and his New Zealand debut with the Auckland Philharmonia.
Read moreReviews
“Maestro Jonathon Heyward shows an inspired control of dynamics. Yes, he’s working with a stage packed with musicians, but he draws from them such unbelievably immense power! That peasant cart becomes a huge juggernaut, rumbling along like an earthquake. Surely only Paul Bunyan’s blue ox Babe could pull such a behemoth! The hut on hen’s feet of that witch, the Baba Yaga, is weird and deliciously frightening. Jonathon Heyward is young, lithe and slender, graceful and precise—and throughout the evening he displayed a genius that will illuminate concert halls for decades to come.”
“… Jonathon Heyward makes Lincoln Center debut with ‘rock-star’ performance …. [it] wasn’t just triumphant. It was thrilling. Heyward gave the nearly 1,000 people attending each night’s concert a high-speed, jolting, heart-pounding roller coaster ride … The audiences in New York couldn’t seem to get enough … And though the concerts took place on weeknights, the audience called the conductor back for three standing ovations. There likely would have been a fourth, except that the crew turned on the house lights.”
“… conductor Heyward is fascinating to watch. Without a baton, he sometimes signaled the orchestra in balletic gestures, sweeping his hands across long arcs or shaping phrases in circular motions, like a potter at the wheel. Elsewhere it looked as if he were holding invisible teacups in each hand, swinging them to keep the beat. It all worked … Heyward proved himself a sophisticated interpreter … He kept every detail in place, manicured and neatly articulated … Musically polished and compelling …”
“… young US conductor Jonathon Heyward stepped in at short notice and did a marvellously incisive job, all clipped rhythms and bristling precision, drawing vivid playing from the SCO musicians.”
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“Most interesting of all … was conductor Jonathon Heyward, making his SCO debut. His podium gestures are curt but clear, and he is very engaging to watch. More importantly, his line of musical argument was never less than convincing, often much more than that … The orchestra responded to him really well, pivoting on a knife edge with some of Mahler’s emotional contrasts, and suggesting that this is a relationship that might go somewhere. It has clearly got off to a good beginning. I would like to hear them together again.”
“… [Heyward] has a very solid technique and ability to study and assimilate that allow him to mark and anticipate everything and everyone with total security … excellent … appreciated by all …”
“… fearless … exuberant, exhilarating stuff … an unforgettable showcase …”
“Throughout the entire performance Jonathon Heywood conducted himself with notable discipline, switching from tiny hand movements to large expression of his upper body like it was second nature to him”
“Heyward demonstrated a level of confidence and musical intelligence that belied his youth … At the same time, Heyward tirelessly shaped the sound, encouraging subtle refinements and using expressive gestures to blend and adjust the mix. He understood that Holst’s dazzling score isn’t just about the brassy climaxes — wonderfully prepared for here — but also homed in on its varieties of mystery and awe … A wealth of meaning without artifice, as spoken by a truly gifted artist.”
“On the podium, Jonathon Heyward, assistant conductor at the Hallé, made his own mark. He drew poised playing from the Chineke! musicians, first in Elgar’s Serenade for Strings and then in Mozart’s Symphony No 29 in A, the irrepressible bounce of its finale’s dotted rhythms every bit as spirited as the composer intended.”
“Heyward forged a seamless connection among the music, the orchestra and the audience … [he] knew when to lead and when to follow, effortlessly balancing his roles as a natural showman and sensitive collaborator in service to the music.”
Featured News
JONATHON HEYWARD & BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CELEBRATE THE BEGINNING OF HIS MUSIC DIRECTOR ERA
Jonathon Heyward launches his initial 5-year tenure as Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra with two spectacular weekends in both of the BSO’s year-round homes: the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and The Music Center at Strathmore. The era kicks-off on...
Jonathon Heyward Embarks on US Summer Tour
This weekend, Jonathon Heyward returns to Mostly Mozart Festival at the Lincoln Center for two concerts on the 5 and 6 August, ahead of his 3-year tenure as Music Director beginning next season. The programme features Jessie Montgomery's Records of a Vanishing City,...
Jonathon Heyward Named Next Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director of Lincoln Center’s Summer Orchestra
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) today announced that conductor Jonathon Heyward will become the next Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director, ushering in a new era for Lincoln Center’s summer orchestra. A rising conductor on the national and international...
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