Sydney-born conductor, bass, and artistic director Dr Jack Stephens is the Director of Music at St Paul’s College, Sydney. Praised for his “artistic brilliance” (TheMusicTrust), Jack has led the Choir of St Paul’s College to acclaim, with critics noting their “faultless performances” and “exquisite musical beauty” (CanberraCityNews, 2023).
Most recently, Jack has directed services at Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral London, Canterbury Cathedral, and York Minster, as well as concerts in Paris at Saint-Eustache, La Madeleine, and Saint-Sulpice.
Since 2023, Jack has been the Artistic Director of the Sydney Cantata Project, performing regular concerts of the cantatas of Bach on period instruments. With six concerts annually across churches throughout Sydney, recent soloists in the project have included Helen Sherman, Andrew Goodwin, Sally-Anne Russell, Richard Butler, and more, with six Cantata Concerts programmed for 2025.
Jack performs regularly as a soloist at the Canberra International Music Festival, Albury Chamber Music Festival, New England Bach Festival, Sydney University Graduates Choir, and the Four Winds Festival in Bermagui. From 2020 to 2023, he was a core member of the Canberra-based Luminescence Chamber Singers under Roland Peelman. He has also performed as a soloist across Australia with Bach Akademie Australia, the Song Company, Victoria Chorale, St David’s Cathedral Hobart, and has appeared with ensembles including Cantillation, St Mary’s Cathedral Choir, St Andrew’s Cathedral Choir, St George’s Cathedral Consort Perth, and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.
In 2023, Jack completed a three-year cycle of Purcell’s complete operas: King Arthur in 2021 (featuring Peter Cousens and Chloe Lankshear), Dido and Aeneas in 2022 (featuring Sally-Anne Russell, Celeste Lazarenko, and Andrew Goodwin), and The Fairy Queen in 2023 (featuring Brianna Morrison and Andrew O’Connor). In 2024, he directed the Australian premiere of Lampe’s The Dragon of Wantley, presented in collaboration with the Muffat Collective and Peter Coleman-Wright AO. Jack is also the Producer and Director of Victoriana!, Australia’s longest-running theatrical production, held at St Paul’s College, which recently celebrated its 60th annual season.
As a performer, Jack tours with pianist Ronan Apcar and, in 2023, appeared as Prince Philip in Tom Rimes’ new opera Annus Horribilis alongside Narelle Yeo and Simon Lobelson in Hobart. He has performed extensively across Europe, with appearances at Snape Maltings, St Paul’s Cathedral London, Saint-Eustache in Paris, and in Hannover with the Konzertchor Kleefeld and the Stadtkantorei Gehren. Jack has worked with conductors including David Hill, Simon Halsey, John Rutter, Barry Rose, and Noël Tredinnick, and has broadcast on both the BBC and ABC.
Jack also works with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, regularly presenting pre-concert talks throughout the year. In 2025, he will present at the Bach Festival Leipzig, the Tasmanian Chamber Music Festival, and the Australian Chamber Music Festival. He completed his Doctorate at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, researching the staging of Bach’s Passions, under the supervision of Dr Erin Helyard and Dr Rowena Cowley.
In addition to his work as a singer and director, Jack plays the French horn. In 2014, he was named the Suffolk (UK) Wind Champion, and in 2018, performed as a concerto soloist alongside Robert Johnson (former Principal Horn of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra) in Schumann’s Konzertstück (Concerto for Four Horns). That same year, he won the Ryde Multi-Instrumentalist Eisteddfod. In 2017, Jack’s story of musical triumph and misadventure was featured on NBC and Channel 9’s True Story with Hamish and Andy, where it was re-enacted by comedians including Kitty Flanagan and Ed Kavalee in the episode titled Jack’s French Horn. The episode has since been broadcast worldwide.
