Michael Leighton Jones : Associate Artist
Michael Leighton Jones comes from a musical family - his mother was a professional singer - and he received his earliest musical training in Australia. Postgraduate studies, however, took him from his native New Zealand to England, where he sang in the Choirs of King's College, Cambridge (with Sir David Willcocks) and Westminster Abbey.
For ten years he was a member of the London-based vocal quintet The Scholars, before joining the music staff at the University of Queensland. While working in Brisbane, he formed Jones & Co, an a cappella vocal sextet, which has toured both nationally and internationally.
He has always maintained an active solo career, performing operatic roles (he created the role of The Friend in Debussy's operatic sketches The Fall of the House of Usher) and singing in oratorios and recitals, many of which have been broadcast. He sings regularly with Australia's professional symphony orchestras and chamber music groups.
Since his school days he has had an interest in composition, studying with David Farquhar and Douglas Lilburn in Wellington, and later with David Willcocks and Gordon Langford. He has written many original works and arrangements for choir and smaller vocal groups. In 1997 he was appointed Director of Music at Trinity College, the University of Melbourne. Since arriving in Melbourne, he has been much in demand as a conductor for choral workshops and vocal master classes.
Michael Leighton Jones — current to September 2009