Jon works across musical genres as a composer, arranger and conductor, from his base in Scotland. His professional portfolio over the last 10 years encompasses artistic directorships; conducting opera, standard orchestral repertoire and new music; executive production; and composing/arranging for orchestras, singer-songwriters and other artists. He co-founded the Octandre Ensemble with the composer Christian Mason in 201, He has conducted and led the Ensemble in festival appearances in London and at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, in appearances on BBC Radio 3, and CD releases on Another Timbre and SN Variations. He was founding Co-Artistic Director of Glasgow's Nevis Ensemble until 2022, conducting nearly 200 performances in settings ranging from school and prisons to museums, art galleries and concert halls, and also on top of Ben Nevis and on the remote isles of St Kilda. Since 2023, he conducts the Film Composers Lab at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO).
Jon has a long-term and deep-rooted interest in musical value and meaning. His doctoral thesis, Music as Communication (2009), was examined by Professors Nicholas Cook (1684 Professor, U. of Cambridge) and Bill Brooks (U. of York). He has published music analytic work, as well as collaborations in the social psychology of music, music education and embodied music cognition. Jon teaches at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
'Along came [Maeve] Gilchrist with ... a feast of melancholic optimism propelled by her febrile dexterity, flashes of wild glissandi and, in Jon Hargreaves’ and Pippa Murphy’s orchestral arrangement, poignant moments of impressionistic reflection’. (Ken Walton, The Scotsman)
Recent UK-based collaborators for orchestra include the BBC Concert Orchestra and Katherine Priddy at the BBC Proms, the RSNO at the Scottish Refugee Festival, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Maeve Gilchrist at Celtic Connections. Across the Atlantic, Jon has worked as an arranger and composer for projects with Symphony Nova Scotia, Canada, and for the duo 'Fire & Grace' at the Carmel Bach Festival, in California.
Jon’s high-end, bespoke arrangements have brought artists critical acclaim in the national popular music press, with named mentions in Q magazine, the BBC R2 Rock and Reel magazine and elsewhere. Collaborators include Chris Helme, Shed Seven, Sam Forrest, Hayley Hutchinson, and more recently, Martha Bean, Rocketsmith and Boxteles.
'Denyer's hour-long masterpiece had a gripping flow that was sometimes thunderously aggressive, sometimes beguiling and often disturbing. I will be searching out the recording (Another Timbre) made by these excellent performers — the Octandre Ensemble directed by Christian Mason and Jon Hargreaves.'(Richard Morrison, The Times)
Jon co-founded London's Octandre Ensemble with the composer Christian Mason in 2011. The group focusses on music written after 1945, with an emphasis on timbre and ritual. Octandre’s purpose is to advance music exploration, working with composers to bring out deeper threads of meaning and connection within and between their works. The approach has led to a track record of unique, authoritatively curated performances of rarely heard music. Octandre's output takes many forms, amongst which CDs, concerts, digital and print resources, discussion fora and more. In November 2019 Jon conducted the World Premiere of Frank Denyer's singular epic The Fish that became the Sun at HCMF, as well as its release on Another Timbre records. The work went on to win the RPS Prize for Large-scale Composition.
As conductor
Screens (2023) - Frank Denyer - Octandre Ensemble - Another Timbre
Sub (2022) - Jack Sheen - Octandre Ensemble - SN Variations
Welcome Party (2021) - Cevanne Horrocks-Hopaiyan - Ziazan Horrocks-Hopaiyan, Trish Clowes, Tim Giles, London Symphony Orchestra
The Fish that Became the Sun (Songs of the dispossessed) (2018) - Frank Denyer - Benjamin Gilmore, Octandre Ensemble - Another Timbre
As arranger/composer
World of my Own (2024) - Chris Helme
First Light EP (2022) - Martha Bean
Clouds Behind the Moon (2022) - Alan Leach
As executive producer
24 Preludes and Fugues (2024) - Matt Dibble - Freddy Kempf - Divine Art Recordings
Screens (2023) - Frank Denyer - Octandre Ensemble - Another Timbre