Jonathan Palmer Lakeland

British-American musician Jonathan Palmer Lakeland is a conductor, répétiteur/coach, and recital accompanist 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). Jonathan works as a freelance conductor, assistant conductor, chorus master, and coach for opera companies in Europe and North America. He also holds a position as vocal coach at the Georg Solti Accademia in Italy. As a recital accompanist, he has been heard on many of the world’s great stages from London’s Wigmore Hall to Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. 

Recent and upcoming performance engagements include: Theater an der Wien, Northern Ireland Opera, Royal Academy Opera, Tanglewood Music Center/Opera, with Dame Felicity Lott at Champs Hill (Sussex), Wigmore Hall, the Oxford Lieder Festival, the Leeds Lieder Festival, SJE Arts (Oxford), and more. As a freelance coach, Jonathan has prepared singers for roles with Glyndebourne, Oper Frankfurt, National Theater Mannheim, Kentucky Opera, Northern Ireland Opera, and many more. He has held vocal coach positions at a number of institutions including: Royal Academy Opera, the Georg Solti Accademia, and Westminster Choir College, among others.

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Jonathan began conducting pit orchestras at the age of 14, and spent his early professional years conducting pit orchestras, arranging, and composing theatre music. In 2008, he began studying piano accompanying and conducting at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, during which time he also served as Assistant Conductor of the Princeton University Sinfonia, and for Westminster Opera Theatre and for CoOPERAtive, while a conducting student of David Gilbert (Manhattan School of Music).

Jonathan studied piano accompanying at the Royal Academy of Music in London under Malcolm Martineau, Julius Drake, James Baillieu, and Michael Dussek. He attended the Academy as a recipient of multiple scholarships and awards, including the American Society for the Royal Academy of Music scholarship, the Frank Britton award, the Elsie Doris Prater award, and the Nora Naismith Scholarship. During this time, he also studied at the Georg Solti Accademia in Venice, Italy with Maestro Richard Bonynge, Jonathan Papp, and Annette Saunders.

In the summer of 2018, Jonathan held the Billy Joel Keyboard Fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, MA. 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. During this time, he was taught and coached by Roger Vignoles, Dr Alan Smith, Dawn Upshaw, Stephanie Blythe, and Peter Serkin, among others.

Jonathan received a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance, Accompanying, and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. Here, he studied piano with Dr. James Goldsworthy and Dr. JJ Penna. He is a published author, and is currently writing a book on choral accompanying. He has served as a guest lecturer on this topic at the University of Buffalo, Westminster Choir College, the Choral Institute at Oxford, and the Westminster chapter of the National Association for Music Education.