David Jones
Head of Accompaniment
BMus, PGDipRNCM, MusM(Perf), PhD
Email: [email protected]
Head of Accompaniment – Tutor in piano accompaniment, Staff Pianist Co-ordinator and Staff Pianist
Tutor in Piano, Junior RNCM
Academic lecturer and supervisor
David Jones was born on the Wirral and graduated from the University of Wales, Bangor, with a First Class Honours Degree in Music, specialising in performance and studying piano with Jana Frenklova. He subsequently graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, with a Postgraduate Diploma in Piano Accompaniment, which he studied with John Wilson, and the degree of Master of Music in Performance for which he also submitted a study of the songs of Albert Roussel. After a year as Junior Fellow in Repetiteur Studies in the RNCM Opera Department, David lectured for three years at University College, Salford. He joined the staff of the School of Keyboard Studies at the RNCM in 1996 and was appointed Accompaniment Co-ordinator, now Head of Accompaniment, in September 2001. He is a tutor in piano at Junior RNCM having held the posts of Deputy Director and Senior Accompanist there between 1998 and 2023. He was also chorus master of the RNCM Chamber Choir for four years. David has supervised three PhD students to successful completion on theses about French and British music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and is currently supervising two more PhD candidates.
Current and Future Research
Dr David Jones completed his PhD on The Music of Jeffrey Lewis in 2011 at the University of Manchester, and as well as recordings of his piano and chamber music, (piano, vocal and chamber music – Metier/Divine Art, MSV28514, 2009; piano and chamber music – Campion, CAMEO2037, 2005; works for piano, clarinet and flute – ASC, CS CD43, 2001) and an article for Musical Times (Winter 2004, Vol 145, No 1889) David has completed editorial work for Cathedral Press on Lewis’s Sacred Chants (published 2013) together with video interviews with the composer for the Cathedral Press website: see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fJkMrzbnno and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2viH00Aefpg
As well as the recordings of Lewis’s music, David has recently recorded three discs of music by Robin Stevens – Chasing Shadows (Metier/ Divine Art dda 25236, 2023), Music for Cello and Piano (Metier/ Divine Art, dda 25217, 2022) and Prevailing Winds (Metier/ Divine Art, dda 25194, 2020). Other recordings include Judith Bingham: Piano Music (Toccata Classics, TOCC01812013), Philip Spratley: Choral Music (Prima Facie, PFCD100, 2011), John Ramsden Williamson: Chamber Music (Dunelm, DRD0271, 2007), John Ramsden Williamson: Songs (Dunelm, DDV24153, 2007), Stephen Plews: Piano Music (Campion, CAMEO 2029, 2005).
David has also been involved in the preparation and recording of Blooms of Dublin by Anthony Burgess, a project timed to coincide with the centenary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses in 2022. Further material will be recorded in the summer of 2024 and this will be preserved at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester.
Research Areas
Currently engaged in preserving and archiving Jeffrey Lewis’s manuscripts and other papers.
Undergraduate Teaching
Undergraduate elective on mélodie – The mélodie from Berlioz to Boulez.
Undergraduate elective on French opera in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Coaching in accompaniment (duo sonatas and song repertoire)
Postgraduate Teaching
Principal study Accompaniment tutor.
Coaching in accompaniment (duo sonatas and song repertoire)
Research Supervision
Completed research degrees:
Harvey Davies – The Chamber Music of Arnold Cooke (2nd supervisor) – 2022
Maria Stratigou – The Etudes of Louise Farrenc (2nd supervisor) – 2021
Simon Callaghan – The Music of Roger Sacheverell Coke (primary supervisor) – 2020
Current supervision:
Faith Thompson – Gabriel Pierné (2nd supervisor)
Hwan Hee Kim – Kuk Jin Kim (2nd supervisor)
Selected Outputs
Written Outputs
-
- ‘‘A glimpse of infinity: time and stillness in the music of Jeffrey Lewis’,’, The Musical Times,, cxlv (2004), 65 – 74..
-
- Jeffrey Lewis, Editorial introduction to Jeffrey Lewis: Sacred Chants, 2013, Cathedral Press, Bangor
Practice Research
- Judith Bingham Piano Music, David Jones Piano, Toccata Classics, London, 2009
- John Ramsden Williamson Lads of Love and Sorrow, Mark Rowlinson, Baritone, David Jones, Piano Voice and Piano, Dunelm/ Divine Art, Doddington, 2006
- John Ramsden Williamson: Chamber Music, Miriam Peake, flute, Sarah Ableman, clarinet, Rosemary Richardson, bassoon, Dunelm/ Divine Art 2007)
- Jeffrey Lewis Silence of the Night, Sophie Mather, violin, Hester Chapman, cello, William Stafford, clarinet, James Faulkner, bass guitar, Ian Tate, piano, Daniel Jones and Toby Kearney, percussion, Caroline MacPhie, soprano, Zheng-Yu Wu, violin, David Jones, piano and conductor, Metier/Divine Art, Doddington, 2007
- Interview with Jeffrey Lewis, Jeffrey Lewis, David Jones , Cathdedral Press/ RSCM via YouTube, 2012
Jeffrey Lewis Epitaph for Abelard and Heloise, Litania, Musica Aeterna Gerald Gregory, violin, Douglas Badger, cello, Fiona Slominska, flute, Benjamin Griffiths, flute, Sarah Ableman, clarinet, Amy Liptrott, harp, Ian Tate, piano, Mark Concar, percussion, David Jones, piano and conductor – Campion, CAMEO2037, 2005
Jeffrey Lewis Sonante, Cantus, Teneritas, Trilogy, Threnody Karen Turner, clarinet, Aoife ni Raghaill, flute, David Jones, piano – ASC, CS CD43, 2001
Robin Stevens – Chasing Shadows Alexander Jones, double bass, David Jones, piano – Metier/ Divine Art dda 25236, 2023
Robin Stevens – Music for Cello and Piano Nicholas Trygstad, cello, David Jones, piano – Metier/ Divine Art, dda 25217, 2022
Robin Stevens – Prevailing Winds Lindsey Stoker, French horn, Helen Peller, bassoon, John Bradbury, clarinet – Metier/ Divine Art, dda 25194, 2020.
Anthony Burgess – Blooms of Dublin podcast produced by the Anthony Burgess Foundation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BcHtpPOTmc
Professional Activity
As well as his work at the College, David is also pianist for the Hallé Choir, and founder and Musical Director of Altèri, the Manchester-based chamber choir. He also held the post of pianist for Huddersfield Choral Society between 1993 and 2001. For many years he has been, with April Cantelo, Stuart Smith, Rosemary Walton and Patricia MacMahon, a tutor on the summer course Art of Song, and in the summer of 2022 worked alongside Sir John Tomlinson and Matthew Jocelyn on the course Operatic Shakespeare, at Musikvilla Untersberg, Grossgmain, near Salzburg. He was a member of the examiners’ panel for the ABRSM between 2005 and 2019, examining both in the UK and in the Far East. He has given first performances of works by David Ellis, Robert Hanson, John Hawkins, Alan Lees, Peter Hope, Mark Simpson and Emily Howard, and in 2001 he released a disc of piano and chamber works by Jeffrey Lewis on the ASC label. A disc including piano music by Stephen Plews has been released on Campion Cameo, two discs of songs and chamber works by John Ramsden Williamson have been released by Dunelm, and a CD of Judith Bingham’s complete piano music was released on Toccata Classics in 2013. He has recently contributed to a disc of chamber music by Robin Stevens to be released on Divine Art. A second disc of music by Jeffrey Lewis, released on the Campion Cameo label, was described by Gramophone as ‘…a disc not to be missed by anyone who cares about communicative 20th-century music.’ A third disc in the series was released by Metier/Divine Art in spring 2009, on which he collaborates with soprano Caroline MacPhie and violinist Zheng Yu Wu. He completed his PhD at the University of Manchester in 2011, researching Jeffrey Lewis’s music.
