Christian Jones

Christian is principal bass and contrabass trombonist at Opera North and teaches at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, in addition to freelancing in the UK and internationally.

He began playing the trombone at the age of ten, progressing through Staffordshire’s excellent music service before entering London's Royal Academy of Music in 1998. Winning the bass trombone chair in the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in 2001, aged 20, Christian was permitted to complete his studies with Bob Hughes and graduated with first class honours in July 2002, a month before joining the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. After a decade of performing worldwide and a year as deputy chairman, he relocated to Yorkshire with wife Katy Jones and their young family in 2012.

Appointed in 2015 as Bass Trombone tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Christian is enrolled on a Performance Practice PhD and has a YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/c/ChristianJonesBasstrombone, featuring over 100 videos covering performances of solo works, technical advice and orchestral and opera excerpts.

As a soloist he has performed all over Europe and his debut solo album, Windows, in collaboration with New York Philharmonic principal trombonist Joseph Alessi, was released in 2023. Future solo projects include recording a new commission for bass trombone and strings, plus a tour of schools with a new interactive work by composer Mark Travers to help reverse the decline of trombone playing at grassroots level.