Jonathan Stuchbery

Jonathan is a specialist in period instruments of the lute and guitar family based in Toronto, ON. He is praised for his “energizing precision” (The Whole Note) and “wistful lute performance” (La Scena Musicale), while showcasing creative and engaging programming.
 

Versatile as a soloist, and in ensemble throughout the early music scene in Canada and abroad, he has shared the stage with groups including Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Arion Orchestre Baroque, Rosa Barocca, Accademia de’ Dissonanti, Aureas Voces, Capella Intima, and in festivals and series like Festival Bach de Montréal, Festival Montréal Baroque, Early Music Alberta, and Musique Royale. Among other renowned early music artists, he has performed alongside artists such as Dame Emma Kirkby, and Charles Daniels. 

With soprano Sinéad White, Jonathan forms Duo Oriana, who’s 2023 album ‘How Like a Golden Dream’ was released under the Leaf Music label. Touring in support of their album took them across Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland in 2023. They have been described as “masters of conveying…emotions to an audience,” (Oxford Daily Info) and featured by Early Music America, the English Lute Society (London), at Windsor Castle, and as artists in residence at Toronto’s St. James Cathedral. Jonathan is also interested in writing and collaborating with composers to develop new repertoire for historical instruments. His own lute song ‘Initium Noctis’ can be heard on Duo Oriana's album ‘How Like a Golden Dream’, and thanks to a 2024 Toronto Arts Council grant, has written music for four poems commissioned from Toronto writers for Duo Oriana. These four songs form the beginning of the Toronto Book of Ayres, which had it's premiere at the Canadian Opera Company in April 2025, and has had subsequent performances at the University of Waterloo, University of British Columbia, and Early Music Vancouver. His experience in contemporary classical music also extends to large-scale works on classical, and electric guitar in series such as Live@CIRMMT and Montréal/Nouvel Musique. With the Cygnus Trio he has taken part in the commissioning and premiering of multiple compositions, all of which are recorded on their 2018 album ‘Amalgam’. In addition to working as an instrumentalist, Jonathan is active as a singer in the Toronto music scene, where he is a founding member of Diapente, a Toronto based vocal quintet specializing in music of the renaissance, and is a tenor section lead at St. James Cathedral.

Jonathan is a passionate educator, and has been engaged as an instructor at the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, Canadian Renaissance Music Summer School Pacific (Vancouver), Sinfín Armonia (Ecuador) and the Pass Early Music Festival (Lethbridge) in addition to teaching private students at home in Toronto.

In 2020 Jonathan received a Master's in the Performance of Early Music at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona, studying in the studio of Xavier Diaz-Latorre. His master’s research on historical stringings on the baroque guitar received the highest marks and is published in RECERCAT which archives research carried out at institutions in Catalunya. His classical guitar studies began in Penticton, British Columbia with Selwyn Redivo, and he received a bachelor of music with a double major in guitar and lute performance at McGill’s Schulich School of Music, where he was recognized for outstanding achievement in Lute. He studied with Jérôme Ducharme and Sylvain Bergeron. 

Jonathan is also passionate about caring for and protecting the natural world. He has worked as an educator for the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, and can always be heard supporting at-risk species on this Earth that he loves. If he's not practicing, or performing with instrument in hand, you'll often find him appreciating life outdoors with his pug Satie, or sipping tea in the comfort of his home.