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Australian conductor Jen Bailey was educated at the University of Western Australia and Oxford before pursuing advanced studies in conducting in the United States, and later at the Academy of Music (HAMU) in Prague. One of five finalists in the Vahktang Jordania competition of 1996, attracting the attention of Giorgi Jordania and Vahktang Jordania himself, her principal teachers were Kenneth Kiesler, David Milnes and Tomas Koutnik. She has furthered her education in masterclasses with Jorma Panula, Neeme Jarvi, Paavo Jarvi, Salvador Mas Conde, Kirk Trevor and Iloh Yang among others. In 2001 and 2003 she was selected to participate in Symphony Australia's prestigious 'Young Conductor Development Program'. She was assistant conductor and later acting Chief Conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra of Adegeya. 

 

She has conducted in concert the Bohuslav Martinu Filhamonie, Zlin, The Hradec Kralove Philharmonic Orchestra, The St Petersburg Academic Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic of Veliky Novogorod, the Sochi Symphony Orchestra, The Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne, the Orchestra of Varna, Bulgaria, and is a regular guest conductor with the Kharkiv Philharmonic. Outside of the purely orchestral stream she has worked for SFSound, North Bay Opera, and San Francisco City Concert Opera.  Non-professional groups she has worked with include the St Swithun's Ensemble, the choirs of Wolfson College, Oxford and Darwin College, Cambridge, the Chorus of St Peter's College, Oxford, the St Peter's College Orchestra, the Magdalen College Orchestra, the Community Women's Orchestra, Oakland (California), Northfield Community Band, The Morven Singers, the University of Aberdeen Symphony Orchestra and her own semi-professional orchestras, the Orchestra at St Mary Magdalen and The Caledonian Pops Orchestra.

 

She has been Musical Director of productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute, Purcell's Dido and Aneas, and the world premiere of Wakely's The Selfish Giant.  With an abiding interest in early-years music education, when not conducting Jen Bailey is usually found sitting on the floor developing the next generation of musicians and concert-goers.