About

Photos 1, 3, 5 & 6: Jonathan Slade
Photos 4, 7 & 8: Cathy Pyle

Patrick John Jones writes music for acoustic instruments that is most often performed in concert halls and occasionally in museums, art galleries, and libraries. He is interested in vivid sounds, visceral rhythmic energy, and different ways of approaching the idea of narrative. The influences on his work span from the very old to the very new, and extend beyond music into Bauhaus art, Old English, science fiction, natural phenomena, illuminated Medieval manuscripts, and concrete poetry.

Patrick works with a variety of ensembles, both conventional and unusual. The Vanity of Small Differences, for example, takes the familiar combination of violin and cello and reinterprets the relationship between the two. The piano concerto Cast distributes three groups of instruments around an auditorium in order to create an immersive musical space. He has also composed for amateur choir (Prayer), spoken word poetry (Three Shringi Kumari Poems), and holds as yet unrealised ambitions to branch into electronics.

Performances by:

Kaleidoscope Chamber Ensemble, Britten Sinfonia, Ensemble 10/10, members of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Quatuor Diotima, Mahan Esfahani, The Kreutzer Quartet, Octandre, Psappha, the Berkeley Ensemble, Ulysses Ensemble, and more…

Venues, festivals, broadcasts:

BBC Radio 3, Aldeburgh Festival 2018 (Britten Studio, Snape), Royal Festival Hall (London), Wigmore Hall (London), Milton Court (London), Foundling Museum (London), Epstein Theatre (Liverpool), National Centre for Early Music (York), Capstone Theatre (Liverpool), Burgess Foundation (Manchester), and more…

Awards, courses, residencies:

London Symphony Orchestra’s Panufnik Scheme 2020-2022
– mentored by Colin Matthews and Christian Mason
Psappha ‘Composing For’ 2020-2021
– with Heather Wallington, viola
Winner of Calefax Composers Competition 2020
Dartington Advanced Composition Course 2019
– mentored by Harrison Birtwistle; funded with a bursary from the RVW Trust
Cheltenham Composers Summer School 2019
PRS Accelerate 2018
Psappha ‘Composing For’ 2017-2018
– with Benedict Holland, violin, and Jennifer Langridge, cello
Britten-Pears Composition Course 2017
– tutored by Colin Matthews, Michael Gandolfi, and Oliver Knussen
Royal Philharmonic Composition Prize 2015
– mentored by Unsuk Chin
Residency at Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada, 2015
– funded by the Sir Jack Lyons Charitable Trust
Britten Sinfonia OPUS2014
Sound & Music New Voices 2014
New Dots 2013
Sound & Music Portfolio 2013

Academic positions and education:

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, London 2021-2024
Artist in Residence, John Rylands Archive, Manchester 2019-2020
Postdoctoral fellow, University of York, 2018-2019
PhD in Composition, University of York, 2013-2018
– supervised by Thomas Simaku and funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council
MMus in Composition, Kings College London, 2011-2012
BA Music, University of York, 2007-2010