Jonathan Sells

Jonathan Sells is an internationally renowned artistic director, conductor, and singer, and was appointed as Choir Director in March 2025.

A member of the Monteverdi Choir from 2009-2018, Sells made his conducting debut with the Choir and English Baroque Soloists in June 2024. Those performances of Bach motets in London and Leipzig were met with a rapturous reception from audiences and critics:

"The Monteverdi Choir, led by Jonathan Sells...proves its extraordinary class."
Leipziger Volkszeitung

Jonathan Sells first conducted the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in 2024 in London with Kati Debrezeni and at the Bachfest Leipzig with Isabelle Faust, in concerts described as ‘almost unbearably beautiful’ (Leipziger Volkszeitung). Sells became the Choir’s Director following their ‘brilliant’ (Gramophone) live recording of a cappella motets by Bruckner, Gesualdo, and others, released on SDG in 2025. He has since led them in Handel’s mighty Dixit Dominus at the Edinburgh International Festival (recording live for Deutsche Grammophon Stage+ and BBC Radio 3), in Snape Maltings Concert Hall, and at London’s newly restored Barts North Wing.

Himself a member of the Monteverdi Choir from 2009-2018, Jonathan Sells combines an active international singing career with conducting and musical direction. His work is most closely associated with the music of the Baroque period, and especially that of JS Bach. Sells has appeared as a soloist in Australia (Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium with the Australian Chamber Orchestra/Tognetti) and the US (Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall with Les Arts Florissants), alongside regular appearances at many major Bach and Baroque festivals across Europe, and above all in Switzerland, where he lives with his family.

In 2008 he founded the baroque collective Solomon’s Knot, “one of the UK’s most innovative and imaginative ensembles” and the Resident Baroque Ensemble at Wigmore Hall since 2023. As artistic director, he has brought them to top festivals in Europe and North America, and their performances have been broadcast on a large number of European radio stations.

Under his leadership, Solomon’s Knot “set new standards” with productions of JS Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passion, semi-staged by John La Bouchardière at Bachfest Leipzig, Thüringer Bachwochen, Snape Maltings, and Wigmore Hall. On the recommendation of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, he made his Bachfest Leipzig debut as musical director in 2016 with Bach’s Magnificat, later recorded and released on Sony Classical. Solomon’s Knot’s recording of JS & JC Bach Motets was released by Prospero Classical in 2023, and “demonstrates the innermost essence of this music like never before” (Klassisk Musikk).

Leading from within the ensemble, Sells has directed memorised performances including Bach’s Mass in B minor, St Michael’s Day cantatas (BBC Proms), Hunt Cantata and Mass in F major (Bachwoche Ansbach, released on Prospero Classical), and Christmas Oratorio (Wigmore Hall), and Handel’s Messiah and Esther (Händel-Festspiele Halle, Regensburg Tage Alter Musik) as well as Dixit Dominus (Bachfest Schaffhausen, Brighton Festival, De Singel Antwerp). In 2025, he headed Solomon’s Knot in the world premiere of Chad Kelly’s new reconstruction of Bach’s Köthener Trauermusik at Wigmore Hall, Bachfest Leipzig, and Tage alter Musik Regensburg, recorded live for Linn.

Jonathan Sells has a burning curiosity for neglected geniuses of the 17th and 18th centuries such as Johann Kuhnau, George Jeffreys, and Barbara Strozzi, as well as later repertoire: he has conducted Beethoven, Dvorak, Prokofiev, Nielsen, and Varèse, and has worked with choirs from the UK to the Middle East

The Monteverdi Choir has been a cornerstone of my professional life and a guiding star for my ideal of choral excellence. To be able to shape and nourish the work of the Choir as it begins its exciting new chapter is a huge honour. The Choir’s identity is defined by virtuosity, power, superlative commitment to text and language, a kaleidoscopic array of colours and a direct connection to human emotion. These are the values and qualities which I will continue to promote, both when conducting the Choir in concert and when collaborating with other conductors.

Jonathan Sells

(Photo: Paul Marc Mitchell)