Judah Leon Aronoff (to give him his birth name) was born in Kiev in 1905 but moved with his family to Antwerp the following year. He came to London in 1914, becoming a British citizen in 1929, having changed his name to Jack Leon.

Although trained as a violinist, he gave this up in favour of conducting. His early dance band records, of which he made many, served as a prelude to the light orchestral performances that were to dominate his career. He recorded extensively for 'Mood Music' libraries and his recordings with the New Concert Orchestra are now becoming available to a new generation by way of compact disc. Although essentially a recording orchestra, it did occasionally broadcast.

Jack Leon conducted his own orchestra throughout the forties and for much of the fifties, appearing regularly on 'Music While You Work' and later in 'Morning Music', for which he provided more than forty programmes. There was also an untitled light orchestral 'slot' at 7.15a.m to which Jack Leon and his orchestra regularly contributed. There is one surviving recording of this orchestra in the BBC Sound Archives which is a perfect testimony to its high standard of performance.

Jack Leon's theatrical connections included the London Casino and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, for which he was Musical Advisor. He also had a long association with the Prince of Wales Theatre, London as Musical Director. He was not particularly well-known as a composer but one composition of his that was very successful was 'Viva Villa" written under the pseudonym of Stephen-Fonora

He moved to Glasgow in 1956 to take up the appointment of conductor of the BBC Scottish Variety Orchestra, a position he was destined to hold for ten years, broadcasting several times every week. He retired (albeit very reluctantly) from the BBC in 1966 and soon reformed his own orchestra for broadcasting. Early in 1967 he was given a series of broadcasts in 'Breakfast Special'. Sadly, after completing only a few recordings he collapsed in the street in Glasgow having suffered a heart attack from which he died, aged only 61, on 10th March 1967.

Jack Leon was a perfectionist and was regarded by some as a 'hard task-master,' but his daughter Miriam remembers him only as a kind and loving father from whom she was parted at the tender age of eighteen.

With 324 editions of 'Music While You Work' to his credit, Jack Leon conducted the most light orchestral programmes in the series.

Listen to 'Morning Music' played by Jack Leon and his Orchestra
as broadcast on 30th September 1954 at 8:20am.

MORNING MUSIC
Home Service 30th September 1954 at 8.20am.
played by Jack Leon and his Orchestra

MORNING MUSIC at 8.20 a.m. on the Home Service on 30th.December 1953
played by Jack Leon and his Orchestra

MUSIC WHILE YOU WORK at 10.30 a.m. on 12th April 1956
played by Jack Leon and his Orchestra

Listen to Jack Leon and his Orchestra
playing 'Love's Dream after the Ball' by Czibulka
(60 second clip)