Geraint Jones

Geraint Iwan Jones was born on 16 May 1917 in Porth (Wales). After school he received a Sterndale Bennett scholarship that allowed him to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He did not have to serve in the military during World War II due to his poor health. After his studies Geraint Jones worked as a keyboard player. One of his first performances was as a harpsichordist at one of Myra Hess' National Gallery concerts in 1940. Immediately after World War II Geraint Jones launched into a series of concerts performing the complete organ works of Bach in London. And the baroque music set the tone for his future career. In the late 1940s Geraint Jones and his second wife violinist Winifred Roberts made a tour and performed baroque music for violin and harpsichord. In 1947 he was engaged to make a series of gramophone recordings on the baroque Schnitger organ in Steinkirchen (Germany) and other baroque organs in Europe. In 1950 Geraint Jones conducted a performance of Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" at the London Mermaid Theatre with Kirsten Flagstad, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Thomas Hemsley. From the professional musicians that took part in the Mermaid concerts he founded the Geraint Jones Singers and Orchestra, an ensemble dedicated to baroque music in 1951. Its performances of baroque music became classics and won the Grand Prix du Disque twice in 1959 and 1966.
During the 1960s and 70s Geraint Jones more and more became an impresario. He was artistic director of several festivals, for example the Lake District Festival which he founded in 1960, the Salisbury Festival (1973-77), Manchester Festival (1977-87) and the Kirckman Concert Society (1963-1998).
In addition Geraint Jones was also very highly thought of as an organ designer. He was involved in the construction of organs at the Royal Northern College of Music, St Andrew's University, the Royal Academy of Music and the Academy for Performing Arts in Hong Kong.
Geraint Jones died on 3 May 1998.

In my posession are three autograph music manuscripts by Geraint Jones. That fact is remarkable because no original compositions by Geraint Jones are commonly known. The biographies about him in the Oxford, Grove or Baker Dictionary do not mention a single composition by him. And no published composition by him exists.

The manuscripts in my archive belong to two compositions: The "Idyll, for violin and piano" and a work for piano which is titled in one manuscript "Ballade" and in the other "Rhapsody" (and being identical inside). All three manuscripts are not dated, but it seems likely that they were composed during his student days, so around 1935.