Born in Gateshead, and since 2011 a Fellow of the Royal College of Music where he studied composition and conducting, John Wilson is now in demand at the highest level across the globe, regularly guest conducting the world’s finest orchestras. In recent seasons these have included the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He has also conducted productions at English National Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. For many years he appeared across the UK and abroad with the John Wilson Orchestra and in 2018 relaunched Sinfonia of London with which he has recorded several award-winning CDs, their wide repertoire ranging from Respighi to Britten and Dutilleux. In 2021 he brought the orchestra to the BBC Proms for their much-anticipated début concert performance, described by The Guardian as ‘truly outstanding’. In 2022 they appeared at the second night of the Proms in a concert of English music.

John Wilson has amassed a large and varied discography, his most recent recordings with Sinfonia of London having received exceptional acclaim. The disc devoted to Respighi’s Roman Trilogy won the ‘Orchestral’ category at the 2021 BBC Music Magazine Awards, the renditions described by The Observer as ‘Massive, audacious and vividly played’. Referring to one of the musicians’ most recent discs, the Financial Times praised the contents as ‘bewitchingly played and imaginatively directed by Wilson... This disc of early works by the fastidious French composer Henri Dutilleux succeeds beyond expectation’. It duly won a 2022 BBC Music Magazine Award. In March 2019 John Wilson received the prestigious Distinguished Musician Award of the Incorporated Society of Musicians for his services to music and in 2021 was appointed Henry Wood Chair of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music.