Biography

Jonathan grew up in San Diego, California, and at the urging of his parents, began learning classical piano at the age of six.  Secretly dreaming of becoming a rock star, he spent the next dozen years playing piano in the hopes that one day he would replace all the recitals, competitions, and cold formality with screaming teenage girls, pyrotechnics, and endless riches.  But alas, classical piano did not hold such a future in its cards for Jonathan; finding himself restless, he delved into jazz and blues and played in a handful of bands before falling in love with piano composition.  Since then, he has developed his own unique voice that reflects the variety of his musical influences and training.

 
Jonathan left California to go to college on the East coast, naively leaving the beaches behind him to experience what winter was really like.  However, two years of blizzards and ice were enough to send him running to study for a year in Seville, Spain before returning to finish his senior year at Tufts University and studies at Berklee School of Music.  During the summer of 2004, he recorded his debut album of solo piano compositions, Smoke on the Horizon, independently releasing the CD on his own label in 2005.  Critic Kathy Parsons declared it as “nothing short of spectacular… a collection of original piano solos that are full of youthful energy as well as the naked and deeply-felt emotions that bubble up (and sometimes roar) as one’s life takes shape.”

 
Jonathan is actively involved in community outreach and benefit concerts, most recently organizing and headlining a successful fundraising concert for Hurricane Katrina.  However, he continues to balance music with school and his life away from the piano.  “When I begin composing I don’t know where a song will take me or what walls I will run into. But there is one thing I do know: there is something on the other side of the wall, a part of myself waiting to be discovered… I play piano, because it lets me dream out loud…”