Dr. Richard Jenkinson is Musical Director of the British Police Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of St John, Bromsgrove. From 2016-19 he was Music Director of the orchestra and choir of the G.K.T. Music Society at King's College, London and, since September 2017, has been conductor of the Worcestershire Youth Orchestra. He has conducted complete cycles of the Beethoven Symphonies and Piano Concertos with the O.S.J. which culminated with performances of the Choral Symphony in Worcester Cathedral. Concerts with the B.P.S.O. have included performances at Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester Cathedrals and regular concerts to the massed audiences at Beacon Park, Lichfield and Symphony Hall in Birmingham. In May 2019 Richard conducted the B.P.S.O. at the Royal Albert Hall, London celebrating the orchestra’s 30th anniversary involving fanfare trumpets, troupes of bagpipers and massed choirs from around the United Kingdom which involved over 600 performers. 

Richard’s musical education started with cello and piano lessons in Derbyshire and progressed to studies with Florence Hooton and William Pleeth. In 1990 he won a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he won the Gold Medal after a performance of the Dvořák ‘Cello Concerto in the Barbican Hall. In 1995 he was awarded a top prize at the Vittorio Gui Chamber Music Competition in Italy. Richard was principal 'cello with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and, from 1998-2016, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He is the 'cellist of Dante String Quartet with whom he has given live radio broadcasts and performed in France, Ireland and Japan. Richard has also appeared as soloist internationally with performances in Australia, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Republic of Ireland, United States and Venezuela. He has made numerous recordings for, amongst others, Em, Hyperion, Koch, Naxos and Somm labels.

In 2019 Richard successfully defended his Ph.D. on the music of Zoltán Kodály from the University of Birmingham where he was also a Bramall scholar.