About Jonathan
A versatile musician, Jonathan Lakeland works around the world as a pianist, conductor, composer, and producer - focusing on projects that span genres, with a particular focus in classical music & opera, musical theatre, jazz, improvisation and devised pieces, and crossover repertoire. His recent and upcoming projects have included collaborations with artists such as Aigul Akhmetshina and Sir Antonio Pappano, Wu Tsang and Moved by the Motion, and Julieth Rolong Lozano at venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Tate Modern and the Royal Opera House in London, the Zurich Schauspielhaus, and Salle Cortot in Paris.
Following their performance at Carnegie’s Stage of Legends Gala last year, Jonathan is thrilled to return to make his Carnegie Hall debut in recital with mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina, with whom he maintains a close artistic partnership. Their years-long collaboration has included performances from San Francisco to London and features on Akhmetshina’s latest album for Decca with Sir Antonio Pappano, which includes the premiere recording of Lakeland’s arrangement of Bésame Mucho. In 2025 he co-created Rebellious Birds V for the Tate Modern alongside Wu Tsang (2018 MacArthur Fellow), dancers Tosh Basco and Josh Johnson, saxophonist Tapiwa Svosve, and soprano Julieth Lozano Rolong. Based on themes from Bizet’s Carmen, Rebellious Birds V was a devised and semi-improvised theatre and performance work commissioned as part of the Tate’s Theatre Picasso exhibition. As a conductor, Lakeland has led productions with opera companies across Europe and North America. In May 2024 he conducted a new adaptation of Carmen at the Schauspielhaus Zürich, featuring additional music by GRAMMY Award-winner Andrew Yee. About the performance, the Tages-Anzeiger Zürich wrote, “The singing, the orchestra under the direction of Jonathan Palmer Lakeland, and composition by Andrew Yee based on the Bizet opera were truly reason enough for the loud premiere cheers and the standing ovations.” In 2022 he made his Vienna debut with the Austrian premiere of Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin at the Theater an der Wien, where he previously served as a member of the music staff. Merkur wrote, “Jonathan Palmer Lakeland (conductor) unleashed a telling, intoxicating sound with the Wiener Kammerorchester.” An accomplished recitalist, Lakeland has appeared with singers at Wigmore Hall, Salle Cortot, Alice Tully Hall, the Oxford Lieder Festival, and the Leeds Lieder Festival, with performances broadcast on BBC Radio 4, PBS, and NPR/WWFM. He has coached singers in preparation for performances at the Royal Opera House, Metropolitan Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, and Opéra National de Paris, and previously served as Associate Director and Vocal Coach of the Georg Solti Accademia.
