Opera North bass and contrabass trombonist Christian Jones began playing at the age of ten, progressing through the excellent Staffordshire, Midland and National Youth Orchestras. Appointed to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in 2001, aged twenty, Christian graduated from London’s Royal Academy of Music with first class honours the following year. A month later, he joined the Philharmonia Orchestra and spent a decade recording soundtracks and performing around 150 concerts per year across the world. Since relocating to Yorkshire with his young family in 2012, Christian continues to work internationally, with recent faculty appearances across Europe. Launched in 2017 as a study aid for students, Christian’s YouTube channel currently features over 100 videos of solo works, technical advice and orchestral and operatic excerpts. He is using the footage as part of a performance-based PhD at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where he has also taught since 2015.
In October 2021, he gave the world premiere of the first ever bass trombone concerto commissioned by a professional British orchestra for one of its members: Benjamin Ellin’s Gresley with the Orchestra of Opera North.
Aside from music, Christian can often be found running in mountains and swimming in cold seas!