A Brief Biography
Simon Hewitt Jones performs, records and broadcasts widely as a solo performer, concertmaster, teacher, writer, chamber musician, music researcher and leader of the Fifth Quadrant (5Q) music collective. His work is strongly influenced by the legacies of Yehudi Menuhin, Pablo Casals, Leonard Bernstein and Daniel Barenboim, and he is involved extensively with projects that explore the intersection of music, technology, education, and cultural diplomacy.
Simon’s solo and chamber music performances have been featured internationally in festivals and TV/Radio throughout Europe, the USA and the Middle East, including NPR’s Performance Today and BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4. His debut chamber music recording won a BBC Music Magazine ‘Premiere’ award. He tours extensively in the UK, and has appeared at most of the UK’s major venues, including the Bridgewater Hall and the South Bank Centre. Simon has contributed extensively to commercial projects for Universal Music, and his string section has recorded sessions for EMI, Virgin, Naxos and the BBC.
Simon is currently working on a PhD at the Royal Academy of Music, exploring the relationship between musicians, music and technology, which you can follow on this website through the blog. He also runs a highly successful teaching practice in London, the London Violin Studio.
Current Season
In 2011, Simon and 5Q were Musicians-in-residence at the Henley Festival. They opened this year’s Spitalfields Festival with their ‘Road to Jericho’ project, a tour and recording (coming 2012) featuring contemporary British and Palestinian music for string quartet and middle eastern instruments. This summer, Simon gave a debut performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Diego Masson and the Ramallah Orchestra in Jerusalem.
Other projects this season include a UK tour featuring Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and the music of Piazzolla, a concert with Harmony Sinfonia featuring Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, performances with the Medici Quartet in Scotland of John Tavener’s ‘Towards Silence’, a piece for four string quartets and a tibetan bowl, and a performance at the Wired 2011 conference on a ’3D-printed violin’.
