Jonathan Rees

Jonathan Rees has performed across the globe as cellist and gamba player with the UK’s leading historical performance and chamber ensembles.

He has performed as continuo / principal cellist and gamba soloist with the Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Arcangelo, Florilegium, Dunedin Consort, The Sixteen, ENO, Britten Sinfonia, RLPO, Manchester Camerata, La Nuova Musica and Solomon’s Knot. He plays with the viol consort Fretwork.

As a chamber musician and soloist he has performed at the Wigmore Hall, King’s Place, St George’s Bristol, at the Edinburgh International, London Baroque, York and Lammermuir Festivals amongst others, and venues across Europe.

An Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, Jonathan has taught undergraduate and postgraduate historical cello students at the Royal College of Music, given historical performance classes at the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire, Cambridge University and the Royal Northern College of Music. He teaches at Bristol’s prestigious music school Bristol Pre-Conservatoire and teaches privately in the Bristol area. He has devised and led music workshops and children’s concerts for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Brighton Early Music Festival and others. From 2013 to 2018 he directed and performed at Bristol’s acclaimed annual festival, Really Classical Relay.

Outside of the world of music he spends a lot of his time making compost and growing plants for the sustenance of humans, bees, butterflies and even the odd lucky greenfly.