Jonathan Butcher has gained an enviable reputation as one of the most versatile yet sensitive conductors of his generation. He is equally at home with symphonic, operatic, choral and musical theatre repertoire and has a flair for communicating with audiences. He has appeared at all the major London concert venues, including the Albert Hall, the South Bank Centre, the Barbican and St John's Smith Square. Jonathan has conducted many of this country's orchestras, including the London Mozart Players, the English Symphony Orchestra and the New London Orchestra, working with international soloists including Dame Moura Lympany, Steven Isserlis, Julian Lloyd Webber and Peter Katin.

Outside the UK, he has worked with the Promenade Orchestra of Radio Hilversum, in the Netherlands, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz in Germany and the National Orchestra of Malta. He has conducted the Vienna Festival Ballet in Swan Lake and, in lighter vein, has conducted two Hoffnung concerts in Munich.

He is Musical Director of the National Orchestra of the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools and conductor of the Surrey Philharmonic Orchestra, the Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra and the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra. Jonathan Butcher has been Artistic Director of Surrey Opera since 1976.