about jonathan

British-American musician Jonathan Palmer Lakeland is a conductor whose work has been described as “pointed and dramatic” (Robert Hugill, PlanetHugill), and as “wordless eloquence…he supported the singers with both brio and sensitivity, clearly relishing his involvement in the dramatic narrative” (Margaret Tattersall, The Herald, Stratford-upon-Avon).

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Jonathan works regularly for opera companies in Europe and North America. In the 2021/22 season, he made his Vienna opera conducting debut to rave reviews with a new production of Tobias Picker's "Therese Raquin" at Theatre an der Wien. Other recent and upcoming performance engagements include with Theater an der Wien, Northern Ireland Opera, and Royal Academy Opera, and concerts in Budapest, Hungary; Seoul, South Korea; and London, UK. In the summer of 2018, Jonathan held the Billy Joel Fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Festival, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. While a fellow, Jonathan served as assistant conductor of Leonard Bernstein's opera "A Quiet Place", which was part of Tanglewood's celebration of the Bernstein centenary. He also performed extensively as a collaborative pianist at the Festival, while being mentored by musicians such as Roger Vignoles, Dawn Upshaw, Stephanie Blythe, and Peter Serkin, among others.

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Jonathan is the Associate Director and Vocal Coach at the Georg Solti Accademia in Italy. As one of the directors of the Accademia, Jonathan teaches alongside musicians including the Artistic Director Jonathan Papp, Maestro Richard Bonynge, Angela Gheorghiu, Jose Carreras, Barbara Frittoli, Leo Nucci, and many more. At the Accademia and elsewhere, Jonathan has coached singers for role debuts with some of the world’s greatest opera houses, including: the Royal Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne, Teatro Real Madrid, and Dutch National Opera, among others. As a collaborative pianist, he has been heard on many of the world’s great stages from London’s Wigmore Hall to Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, with singers including Dame Felicity Lott, Claire Barnett-Jones, and Elin Manahan Thomas.

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Jonathan received his undergraduate degree from Westminster Choir College in Princeton. He receive his master's degree in piano accompanying at the Royal Academy of Music in London studying under Malcolm Martineau, Julius Drake, and Michael Dussek. During this time, he also studied at the Georg Solti Accademia in Venice, Italy, where he was mentored by Maestro Richard Bonynge and Jonathan Papp.