BIOGRAPHY
Music Director Luzerner Theater | Chief Conductor Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie | Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor London Mozart Players | Founder and Artistic Director Northern Chords Festival
British conductor Jonathan Bloxham is Music Director of the Luzerner Theater (since 2023), Chief Conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie (since 2024) and Principal Conductor and (since 2022) Artistic Advisor of the London Mozart Players. He is equally at home conducting opera, large-scale symphonic and intimate chamber programmes in repertoire ranging from Mozart to Mahler to Anna Clyne, and guests with leading orchestras globally such as the NDR Elbphilharmonie and London Philharmonic among many others.
He was recently renewed as Music Director of the Luzerner Theater to 2029. Together with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester in the pit Bloxham has since the start of his tenure had consistently excellent reviews in repertoire such as Peter Grimes, La bohème, Idomeneo, Luisa Miller, L'elisir d'amore, Hänsel und Gretel. Plans in 2026/27 include a new production of Der fliegende Holländer.
This season will be Bloxham’s third year as Chief Conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie following in the footsteps of Andris Nelsons and Jonothan Heyward. He regularly leads them on national and international tours and in their subscription series in Herford. In 2021 he recorded a CD of Strauss and Franck with the orchestra, described as "irresistible" by Musicweb International.
During his tenure thus far with the London Mozart Players the orchestra has inaugurated a successful London season at St Martin in the Fields, commissioned new works from major composers such as Anna Clyne, toured to the Mozartfest Wuerzburg and across Switzerland, and put on large-scale community projects in Fairfield Halls Croydon (their home since 1988).
“A musical miracle... energetic, beautiful, clear and, when necessary, explosive…increasingly full-bodied and expansive, yet always precisely crafted – Bloxham has achieved a masterpiece!”
In 2026/7 Bloxham returns to the NDR Elbphilharmonie, Antwerp Symphony and Residentie Orkest, and conducts the Zurich Chamber, Real Filharmonica de Galicia and Linz Brucknerorchester for the first time. Guest highlights of the past couple of seasons have also included London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Tokyo Symphony, Salzburg Mozarteumorchester, Belgian National, Tonkuenstlerorchester Wien at the Grafenegg Festival, Bremer Philharmoniker, Trondheim Symphony and Philharmonic Brass (musicians from Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras) among many others.
In September 2026 Bloxham makes his debut at Zürich Opera House conducting Die Fledermaus. He made his Glyndebourne Festival debut in 2021, conducting Luisa Miller with the London Philharmonic.
“The Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under Jonathan Bloxham plays a lively, crisp-fresh Mozart...And with all this splendor and Bloxham’s ideally balanced tempos, the individual registers always remain clearly audible. Mozart’s score is implemented exemplary in every detail. You couldn’t play Mozart’s opera more thrillingly or with more virtuosity.”
2024 saw 3 CD releases: Mendelssohn on Decca with the London Mozart Players and Isata Kanneh-Mason, Bach’s Keyboard Concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Tianqi Du (which reached number one on the Apple Classical Top 100 global chart), and works by Bruce Broughton with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Bloxham’s conducting career began in 2016 when he became Assistant Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. Prior to conducting, he enjoyed a successful career as a cellist, performing across Europe and making his concerto debut at the Berlin Philharmonie in 2012. He studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Royal College of Music, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and later trained in conducting with Sian Edwards, Nicolas Pasquet, and Paavo Järvi. Since he founded it in 2009 Bloxham has been Artistic Director of the annual Northern Chords Festival in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which is expanding its activities for the 2027 festival.
“Bloxham guides it flexibly, making the small changes that give the music a face. Even the slightest changes in tone shine and emerge vividly…exciting and personal…what a refreshing evening”
