David Lloyd-Jones began his conducting career in 1959 on the music staff of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. This was followed by conducting engagements for orchestral and choral concerts, opera broadcasts and television studio opera productions. He appeared at the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera, and at the Wexford, Cheltenham, Edinburgh and Leeds festivals, and conducted most of the major British orchestras.

In 1972 he was appointed assistant music director at English National Opera, where he conducted an extensive repertory, which included the first British stage performance of Prokofiev’s epic War and Peace. In 1978 he founded a new opera company in Leeds with its new orchestra, the English Northern Philharmonia (since renamed The Orchestra of Opera North), of which he became artistic director and principal conductor. During his twelve seasons with Opera North he conducted 50 new productions as well as numerous orchestral concerts including festival appearances.

His active career in the concert hall and opera house took him to leading music centres around the world. For Naxos he recorded works by William Alwyn and Alan Rawsthorne and the seven symphonies of Charles Villiers Stanford. In 2007 he was awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society, and he was also chairman of The Berners Trust.