Welsh violinist Charlie Lovell-Jones (b.1999) has been recognised as one of the most promising international soloists of his generation. Since his sold-out Royal Festival Hall debut aged fifteen, Charlie has appeared as soloist with orchestras across the UK and beyond, including the Sinfonia of London, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, English Chamber Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, Yamagata Symphony Orchestra, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Sinfonietta Cracovia, and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.
Charlie has appeared live on radio in broadcasts of Waxman Carmen Fantasy (RTÉ Radio), Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending (BBC Radio 3), Karl Jenkins Violin Concerto (BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Wales) and his own composition, Cariad Cyntaf (2017), for which he was joined by soprano Rebecca Evans (BBC Radio Wales). He has worked with conductors such as John Wilson, Rumon Gamba, Delyana Lazarova, Edward Gardner, Sir Mark Elder, Ken Takaseki, Michael Seal, Lee Reynolds, Moritz Gnann, Ben Gernon, Grant Llewellyn, Stephen Bell, and Jonathan Mann. Charlie is also a Beare’s International Violin Society Artist.
In 2025, Charlie featured as concerto soloist on two releases from Chandos Records. His recordings of William Walton’s Violin Concerto (1939) with John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London, and Ruth Gipps’ Violin Concerto (1943) with Rumon Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, received widespread critical acclaim. Gramophone Magazine, BBC Music Magazine, The Strad Magazine, The Financial Times, and BBC Radio 3 were among the reviewers to praise Charlie’s technical virtuosity, sound quality, and musical voice.
Charlie was the youngest-ever member of the John Wilson Orchestra and has since led Wilson’s multi-award-winning Sinfonia of London (SoL) on many occasions – at the BBC Proms, on tour, and on many recordings. His work as concertmaster has also garnered critical acclaim from Gramophone Magazine, Classic FM, BBC Music Magazine and MusicWeb International. He has also been invited as guest concertmaster with orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Charlie read Music at the University of Oxford, graduating in 2020 with a Gibbs Prize for the highest First-Class Degree in Musicology. That same year, Charlie was awarded an immediate Bicentenary Scholarship during his postgraduate audition at the Royal Academy of Music, from where he graduated in 2022 with the Strings Postgraduate Prize. Charlie studied for over ten years with Rodney Friend MBE, and for two years at the Yale School of Music with Augustin Hadelich, where he graduated in 2024
With support from the Welsh Livery Guild and Cardiff City Council, Charlie attended the Cambridge International String Academy annually from 2012–2017, the Residart ‘Horigome in Italia’ Festival 2014, and the Friend’s International Violin Academy 2020. Additionally, he has enjoyed masterclasses with Ida Haendel, Yuzuko Horigome, György Pauk, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Vadim Repin, Menahem Pressler, Pinchas Zukerman, Leonidas Kavakos, James Ehnes, Tai Murray, and most recently, Ida Kavafian at the Lincoln Center.
Charlie is in demand as both a soloist and recitalist. His 2024–25 season featured performances of concertos by Sibelius, Gipps, Britten, Brahms, Bach, Bruch and Vivaldi, a duo recital with pianist Ariel Lanyi at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and quartet concerts with the award-winning Barbican Quartet at the Lake District Music Festival. He debuted as soloist at the Wigmore Hall in 2022, Birmingham Symphony Hall and De Oosterpoort in 2023, and the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Krakow Philharmonic, and the Snape Maltings in 2024.
Charlie’s debut recital album, recorded with Linn Records as part of his RAM Bicentenary Scholarship, was released in December 2022. Titled Piercing Silence, the album promotes music by queer, Black, and female composers, including a new commission from British Composer Award winner Deborah Pritchard, Towards Freedom, written in response to contemporary human rights issues.
Charlie is passionate about contemporary music: alongside Towards Freedom, Charlie gave the world premiere of Tod Machover’s Resolve Remote for violin and electronics as part of the RAM’s 200PIECES Bicentenary celebration in 2022, which he performed again at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in April 2023. While leader of Oxford University’s contemporary music group, Ensemble Isis, he also performed Pritchard’s Inside Colour for solo violin. In 2023 he premiered Yale Professor of Composition Aaron Kernis’ piano trio, Bright Abyss, and then in 2024, recorded it.
Charlie plays a 1777 G.B. Guadagnini violin on loan from a generous benefactor. Beyond the violin, Charlie was Music Director of the all-male a cappella group, The Oxford Commas (with whom he toured the east coast of America and produced a music video) and sang tenor in Oxford’s most acclaimed student chamber choir, Schola Cantorum.
