Rowan Jones – Clarinet

Rowan Jones is a London based clarinet player completing her Master’s of Performance at the Royal College of Music with Peter Sparks, Tim Lines, Richard Hosford and Barnaby Robson. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with First Class where she held a scholarship learning with Chris Richards, Ben Mellefont and Mark Van de Wiel. They studied bass clarinet with Laurent Ben de Slimane and Eb clarinet with Chi-Yu Mo. They are a keen orchestral and chamber musician, who also has an interest for wider experimental art and music collaborations.

Rowan has enjoyed playing for a variety of freelance orchestral projects, recent engagements include English National Opera, Wild Arts (Elixir of Love, opera run and tour 2023), Sinfonia Verdi and recording with Shadwell Opera at Crown Lane Studios. She has performed under the batons of Edward Gardner, Marin Alsop, John Wilson, Sir Mark Elder, Kirill Karabits, Martyn Brabbins, Jessica Cottis and Michael Rosewell. Rowan has also performed with the English Arts Orchestra, Rosenau Sinfonia, Audentia Ensemble, recording for Naxos in 2019 and alongside Czech Philharmonic member Ondrej Roskovec in 2018. As a soloist, Rowan performed the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Orchestra of Christ Church Spitalfields, London. Rowan’s versatile performance and instrumental skills have lead them to thrive in contemporary music settings too, having attained the 2023/24 clarinet place with the London Sinfonietta Academy.

A passionate chamber musician, Rowan is a founding member of Sylva Winds, a wind quintet formed at the RAM in 2019 where they received 1st place in the Nicholas Blake Woodwind Ensemble 2019/20 and the Digital Chamber Music Prize 2021. Sylva Winds recently recorded Baber’s ‘Summer Music’ and Thea Musgrave’s ‘Wind Quintet’ at Abbey Road Studios this December for the Abbey Road Institute. They have also recorded Valerie Coleman’s ‘Umoja’ for the Royal Academy of Music on International Women’s Day 2021 for the visit of the Minister of State for Universities Michelle Donelan and enjoyed attending chamber residencies in the Isle of Coll with the Tunnell Trust and Ferrandou Musique, in France in 2022. Sylva Winds have also played recitals at the Brazilian Embassy in London, Sherborne Abbey Festival and Cranleigh Arts Festival.

Rowan was tutored by the New London Chamber Ensemble as Principal Clarinet of the National Youth Chamber Orchestra from 2015-2017. She was a finalist in the Lutine Prize, a recipient of the Clarinet Prize (2015 – 2017) and the Principal’s Prize at the Junior Guildhall Music Department where she studied with Neyire Ashworth and performed the world premiere of Derek Roger’s Clarinet Concerto at Milton Court Concert Hall in the Barbican. Rowan is grateful for the St Marylebone’s Educational Foundation and UMUK Sound Foundation for generously supporting their studies at the RCM and contributing toward the purchase of their bass clarinet respectively.