Jonathan Butcher began conducting during his teenage years and, after attending Trinity College of Music as a Junior Exhibitioner, gained a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London. There he studied conducting, trumpet, piano and singing, gaining a GRSM, ARCM and LRAM. He was awarded the Sir Adrian Boult Conductor's Prize on three successive occasions, as well as the Sir Arthur Bliss Prize. Whilst studying at the RCM with Norman Del Mar he was awarded a Leverhulme Studentship enabling him to go to the Berkshire Music Centre, Tanglewood, USA to study with Bernstein, André Previn and Seiji Ozawa.
Since then he has appeared with numerous orchestras both in England and abroad and last summer he made his German debut conducting the Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich's famous Gastag. He regularly works with international soloists and for twenty three years has been Artistic Director of Surrey Opera. He has conducted at all London's major concert venues including a performance of Britten's War Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall and Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake for the Vienna Festival Ballet.
He has a keen interest in contemporary music and enjoys working with choirs, having conducted major oratorios including Elgar's Dream of Gerontius in Canterbury Cathedral and Verdis Requiem at Londons Barbican Centre.
Last year Jonathan conducted a new production of Carmen touring the South West with a special visit to the Minack Open Air Theatre in Cornwall. He was engaged to conduct the National Orchestra of Malta in May and was invited back to the Lot Valley region of France in August to conduct Tosca.
