Conductors

Jonathan Sells

Jonathan Sells is a musical director and singer. The British-Swiss bass-baritone studied at the University of Cambridge, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Zurich Opera. He was a member of the Monteverdi Choir from 2009-2016, performing as part of a solo career that has taken him from Carnegie Hall to Sydney Opera House.  In 2008 he founded the baroque collective Solomon’s Knot, “one of the UK’s most innovative and imaginative ensembles” and now Resident Baroque Ensemble at Wigmore Hall. As artistic director, he has spearheaded bold projects and fruitful collaborations across Europe’s foremost festivals.

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, Thüringen 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), 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 autumn 2024 he will take Solomon’s Knot and the Bach Motets to the Festival Bach Montréal, and Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers to Helsinki. 

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.