Christian Jones

Bass and contrabass trombonist with Manchester’s Hallé Orchestra, Christian Jones has worked with every major UK ensemble on both modern and period instruments, holding previous positions in the BBC NOW (2001-02), Philharmonia Orchestra (2002-12) and Opera North (2012-26).

A passionate advocate for music education, Christian is currently writing up a PhD thesis in Performance Practice at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he also teaches. Underpinning these studies, his YouTube channel features over 100 videos of solo works, technical advice and orchestral and operatic excerpt demonstrations. Following a near career-ending playing injury in 2014 Christian studies Accent Method breathing and Reformer Pilates instructing, having used both disciplines to recover.

As a soloist he premiered the first ever bass trombone concerto commissioned by a UK orchestra: Benjamin Ellin’s Gresley with the Orchestra of Opera North. A later studio recording features in his debut solo album, Windows, released in 2023 with New York Philharmonic principal trombonist Joseph Alessi and Opera North section leader Blair Sinclair. A smaller-scale album composed by Mark Travers, The Circus Suite, followed in 2024 and Christian is currently fundraising to record both legacy and newly-commissioned works with bass trombone and strings.

Away from music, he loves family walks and generally being outdoors, cycling offroad, slightly lost on a fell run or wild swimming – ideally in really cold water!