Tess Jackson

Recently announced as a Classic FM ‘Rising Star’, British conductor Tess Jackson is Associate Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra. Growing up in Germany, Jackson began learning the piano and violin aged six and was inspired to start conducting aged fourteen. She studied Music at Cambridge University, latterly undertaking the Masters in Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music with Sian Edwards.

Highlights of her 2024/25 season include debuts at the Berlin Philharmonie alongside Akademisten members, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and her symphonic debut with the Philharmonia with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 and multiple performances of West Side Story at Volksoper Vienna. She also conducts a festive programme with the London Mozart Players, assists Maestro Enrique Mazzola on Fidelio at the Lyric Opera Chicago, and makes her debut at the English National Opera with The Marriage of Figaro. She conducts two contrasting projects with Chromatica at Southwark Cathedral and Battersea Arts Centre.

Recent highlights with the NYO include her debut at the 2024 BBC Proms, performing a new work by British composer Dani Howard specially commissioned to celebrate ten years of ‘NYO Inspire’, and her jump-in debuts at the Liverpool Philharmonic and Royal Festival Halls for Gavin Higgins’ Concerto Grosso for Brass Band and Orchestra. Her acclaimed jump-in for Smetana’s The Bartered Bride at Garsington Opera led to the invitation to make her symphonic debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra during 2023/24 with other highlights including her debut on the podium of the Volksoper Wien — where she was Musical Assistant for the season — for performances of John Kander’s Cabaret, a return to Waterperry Opera Festival to conduct a production of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons in collaboration with dancers from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and conducting Britten Sinfonia in an Inspiration Day with Essex Music Hub.

In 2022 Jackson assisted Alpesh Chauhan with both the BBC Symphony and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras. She also worked with the London Chamber Orchestra and assisted Trevor Pinnock in the Royal Academy Opera’s production of The Rake’s Progress.

Whilst studying at the Academy, Jackson worked with conductors Semyon Bychkov, Edward Gardner OBE, Sir Mark Elde, John Wilson, and Daniel Capps. Previously, Tess studied Music at Cambridge University and was the Cambridge University Musical Society Conducting Scholar and Principal Conductor of the Cambridge University Sinfonia 2019–21, the first woman to occupy the position for two consecutive years. She is one of seven conductors invited by the Royal Philharmonic Society to front a new scheme for female conductors in association with the Royal Northern Sinfonia at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music.

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