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The English pianist, Martin Jones, studied at London's Royal Academy of Music with Guido Agosti, Guy Jonson, and Gordon Green. In in 1968 received the Dame Myra Hess Award given by the Musicians' Benevolent Fund in the UK.
In 1968 Martin Jones made his debuts at Queen Elizabeth Hall in the South Bank Centre of London and in New York's Carnegie Hall. Ever since he has been one of Britain's most highly regarded solo pianists, in demand for recitals and concerto performances on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1971 he accepted the post of pianist-in-residence at Cardiff University, which he held until 1988.
Martin Jones has performed as concerto soloist with many of the leading British orchestras, as well as in the USA and Russia, and toured Canada as soloist with the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra. Recent performances include Dmitri Shostakovich's Concerto No 1 in Central and South America with the London Festival Orchestra, a regional tour playing Sergei Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the Hallé Orchestra, the Benjamin Britten Piano Concerto in St Petersburg, the Arnold Schoenberg Piano Concerto with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and Scharwenka's Piano Concerto No 1 in Louisiana.
His performance repertoire, as well as encompassing most of the standard works for piano, also includes unusual concertos such as the Ferruccio Busoni Concerto, which he performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Norman Del Mar. He has also championed the music of British composers and has performed concertos by Benjamin Britten, Benjamin, Mathias, McCabe and Constant Lambert. He gave the first performance of the revised version of Alun Hoddinott's Third Concerto at the 1974 BBC Promenade Concerts, and recorded Hoddinott's Second Concerto with Andrew Davis and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Decca.
Martin Jones has given recitals throughout Great Britain, and as well as regular broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, he has given recitals for Brussels Radio, RTE in Dublin and ABC in Australia. In the USA he has served as jury member on a number of international piano competitions, and performed in New York, Washington, Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, Utah and California. In Los Angeles he gave a recital as part of the 1994 UK/LA Celebration of British Arts, which was broadcast live on KUSC Radio. In 1996 he became the first major British artist to give a solo recital in Ekaterinburg, Russia, and in 1998 he gave a solo recital at the Adelaide Festival.
Martin Jones is a prolific recording artist and since 1988 has recorded many discs for Nimbus Records. This include the complete solo piano works of Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms, Debussy, Percy Grainger, Szymanowski (voted Best Instrumental Recording of 1996 by the Spanish magazine CD Compact) and the sonatas of Alun Hoddinott. The complete solo piano works of Igor Stravinsky was released in July 1997, and he has recently completed a project to record several Spanish piano masters. The soundtrack of the film Howard's End features Martin Jones performing P. Grainger's Bridal Lullaby and Mock Morris. He has also recorded P. Grainger's Tribute to Foster conducted by John Eliot Gardiner for Philips, Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto for ASV, and a recital CD with horn player David Pyatt for Erato
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