Since his solo debut at the Royal Festival Hall aged fifteen, Welsh violinist Charlie Lovell-Jones (b.1999) has established himself as an international soloist, chamber musician, and leader of John Wilson’s Sinfonia of London (SoL).

Charlie is a Classic FM Rising Star. He has topped the Specialist Classical Charts twice with his recordings of violin concertos by William Walton (SoL, John Wilson) and Ruth Gipps (BBC Philharmonic, Rumon Gamba) for Chandos; his ‘unobtrusive mastery’ (Geraint Lewis, Gramophone Magazine) in the former earned him a nomination for Gramophone’s 2025 Concerto Award. He was specially selected by the Sir George Dyson Trust to record Dyson’s Violin Concerto (BBC Concert Orchestra, John Andrews) for SOMM Recordings, to be released November 2026.

Charlie has performed at the Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with SoL, and, on recommendation from world-renowned violinist Augustin Hadelich, the Konzerthaus Berlin. Other recent engagements include his debut at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 2025 with pianist Ariel Lanyi, and his 2026 UK Recital Tour with pianist Charles Owen, which culminated in his debut at King’s Place London, for Classical Pride. Forthcoming engagements include his debut with the Wigmore Soloists in the Auditorio de Tenerife.

Since 2021, Charlie has led SoL every summer at the BBC Proms, on ten of their critically acclaimed recordings, and on several UK Tours; for their 2025 Summer Festival engagements he was both leader and soloist. He has performed concertos with Sinfonietta Cracovia, Noord Nederlands Orkest, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, and the English Chamber Orchestra; worked with conductors Edward Gardner, Sir Mark Elder, Delyana Lazarova, Peter Oundjian, Ken Takaseki, Lee Reynolds, and Michael Seal; and has worked as play-director with the Yamagata Symphony, and the London Concertante on UK Tours of Vivaldi, Mozart, and Vaughan-Williams. He has also guest-led the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and joined the Barbican Quartet for their summer 2025 concerts for Lake District Music and the Kulturverein Zorneding-Baldham.

Charlie studied violin with Rodney Friend MBE and Augustin Hadelich. He read Music at Christ Church, University of Oxford, where he was awarded the Gibbs Prize in Music. He also holds an MA Performance and DipRAM from the Royal Academy of Music (RAM), and a Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale University. He was made an Associate of the RAM in 2024, gave a recital for Christ Church Oxford’s 500th anniversary with pianist Julian Chan in 2025, and in 2026 was made Associate Fellow at Pauli Murray College, Yale. As a Bicentenary Scholar at RAM, he recorded his debut album Piercing Silence with Chan, championing music by underrepresented Black, Queer, and female composers. For the concluding work, Towards Freedom, Charlie was pleased to commission his professor of composition at Oxford, Deborah Pritchard.

Alongside many traditional works for the violin, Charlie’s repertoire of contemporary composers includes music by Aaron Kernis, Jennifer Higdon, Tod Machover, Judith Weir, Sally Beamish, Brian Elias, Magnus Lindberg, Outi Tarkiainen, Manfred Trojahn, and pianists Arseniy Gusev and Forrest Eimold with whom he also regularly collaborates.

Competition successes include BBC Young Musician (Category Finalist), The Sendai International Music Competition (semifinalist), Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition (semifinalist), The International Joseph Joachim Violin Competition, the Sibelius International Violin Competition, and the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition.

Charlie plays a 1777 G. B. Guadagnini violin loaned by a generous benefactor, and is a Beare’s International Violin Society Artist. He is grateful to the Hattori Foundation, Drake Calleja Trust, Countess of Munster Trust, John Fussell Trust, and the Harriet Cohen Music Award for British musicians aged 18-30 for supporting his studies.