Beyond the theatre or concert hall, Jack is a passionate advocate for the role that music has to play in education and in wider society in general. Inspired as an idealistic student by the transformative power to young people’s lives of El Sistema in Venezuela, and by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra as a paradigm for listening and cooperation, Jack has made outreach and participation work a principal tenet of his approach to music-making.

At Garsington, Jack conducted the company’s inaugural Opera First performance, exclusively for local schoolchildren, many of whom had never seen an opera before – of Eugene Onegin.  It began a close relationship with Garsington’s Learning & Participation department, for whom he has conducted performances of Eliza and the Swans and The Selfish Giant with Garsington’s Youth Company, and The Bartered Brides for the Adult Company, with members of The Philharmonia.

The world premiere of Silver Birch at Garsington, on which Jack worked as Assistant Conductor, involved him rehearsing the work’s 180-strong community chorus.  The production of Wake, on which he worked for Birmingham Opera Company, was also a world premiere involving a large volunteer chorus; furthermore, the performances themselves took place in a warehouse in Digbeth, bringing opera away from its traditional domain and into the public sphere.  The 2024 production of Der fliegende Holländer, which Jack conducts in Birmingham, will also feature a local chorus, drawn from a diverse range of communities across the West Midlands.

A former classroom teacher at an inner-city primary school (and holding a PGCE and QTS), Jack has a particular enthusiasm for demystifying opera and classical music for young children.  He has conducted school-specific concerts and concerts aimed at younger audiences with The Hallé Orchestra and the orchestra of Welsh National Opera (hosted by YolanDa Brown), as well as performances of Borka: The Goose with No Feathers (Ignite Music) and Silver Electra (ETO, where he returns to conduct The Great Stink for the 2024 season).  Works featuring children within the cast which Jack has conducted or where he has worked with the children’s chorus include Tosca (ETO), Owen Wingrave (British Youth Opera), Hänsel und Gretel (Nederlandse Reisopera) and The Casket Girl (Jubilee Opera).

With W11 Opera and Into Opera, Jack has created and led masterclasses and workshops for primary-school children; for the latter he developed and curated immersive experiences in opera for children who had no prior engagement with it before. He has led workshops for Glyndebourne’s Learning and Engagement department and - under their auspices - given masterclasses for more advanced singers at the University of Chichester. He has also given corporate workshops with Mondegreen Leadership.