Hallam Sinfonia is delighted to announce that its new Musical Director will be Jon Malaxetxebarria. Jon has previously conducted Hallam Sinfonia in a pair of concerts in June 2021, having been due to originally conduct the orchestra in March 2020 before that had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, and will take up the post formally next year. His first performance as Musical Director will be on 14 October 2023, which will also be the orchestra’s 50th anniversary concert.
Born in Gernika in the Basque Country of Spain, Jon Malax conducts regularly in both Spain and the United Kingdom. In Spain he has conducted many orchestras and has also been the assistant conductor of the two main opera houses in Spain: Teatro Real (Madrid) and Liceu (Barcelona) in four productions. He was Music Director of the Basque Youth Orchestra.
In the UK he has conducted various orchestras, particularly across the Midlands and North of England, and he has been Music Director of Solihull Symphony Orchestra since 2013.
As a keen advocate of new music, Jon performed the world premiere of Simon Dobson’s Trombone Concerto with Peter Moore and the RNCM Brass Band, broadcast on BBC Radio 2.
After studying with Dale Clevenger at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Jon moved to Manchester in 2010 to study orchestral conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). He was awarded the Mortimer-Furber Prize in Conducting, and in 2011 he was appointed as a conductor of the Junior RNCM. Jon has been Senior Lecturer in Conducting at Leeds Conservatoire since 2014.
Jon says, “I am very excited to have been appointed Musical Director of Hallam Sinfonia. Our encounters thus far have been so musically rewarding, and at a personal level it is a pleasure to work with such dedicated, enthusiastic and friendly musicians. I look forward to building on what is already an excellent orchestra, and working with the Hallam Sinfonia team to programme concerts that will be memorable for both our players and our audiences alike.”
Jeremy Dawson, chair of Hallam Sinfonia, says, “We are thrilled that Jon is becoming our MD, and that we will get to work with him on a regular basis. We were very impressed with Jon when he conducted us before, and during the recruitment process his vision, passion and musicianship shone through.”