Jonathan Yates

Highly regarded as a pianist and conductor, Jonathan Yates made his professional orchestral conducting debut at 23, leading the National Symphony Orchestra in a Millennium Stages Concert.

The following year he made his Carnegie Hall debut as a participant in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop. He has been heard as a pianist at many major New York City venues, including Weill Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Miller Theater, Bargemusic and Merkin Hall, as well as at the Caramoor Festival and on the Ravinia Festival Rising Stars Series.

He serves as founding music director of Camerata Notturna, one of the New York City’s most exciting young chamber orchestras, and as conductor of the Sarah Lawrence College Orchestra.

His work as an opera conductor includes the world premiere of Michael Webster’s Hell at Performance Space 122 and Gluck’s Orfeoed Euridice and Paride ed Elena at the California Music Festival.

He is also Sarah Lawrence College’s diction coach, and worked for two years as an accompanist at the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. As an ardent devotee of new music, he has been involved in the premieres of such composers as Chen Yi, Augusta Read Thomas and Joan Tower, was the recipient of an ASCAP award for adventurous programming, and participated as a pianist and conductor in Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble Tanglewood Workshops. He can be heard in chamber music of Hindemith on Cedille Records. He holds degrees from Harvard University, SUNY Stony Brook and The Juilliard School.