David Lloyd-Jones

David Matthias Lloyd-Jones (19 November 1934 – 8 June 2022) was a British conductor who specialised in British and Russian music. In 1978 he was a co-founder of Opera North, conducting 50 productions during the 12 years he was there, and was also an editor and translator, especially of Russian operas. Lloyd-Jones was born in London, the son of Sir Harry Vincent Lloyd-Jones and wife Margaret Alwena Mathias. Before World War II, his family was evacuated and moved to West Wales to live on a farm. There he had no contact with classical music until the age of nine, when he studied Mozart in school. On his 10th birthday, his father took him to his first orchestral concert, at the Royal Albert Hall, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He quickly developed a love of British music, including Ralph Vaughan Williams, and also of Russian music. He later attended Magdalen College, Oxford where in 1958 he gained a degree in German and Russian. A contemporary there was Dudley Moore, who played as leader of the college orchestra under Lloyd-Jones's baton.