Music for Movement
Jon’s music has been played at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, Fête à Aix, the American Center in Kyoto, Seibu Seed in Tokyo, Teatro Armazém in Rio, festivals in Verona, Pamplona, San Francisco, and Santander; concerts in Athens, Brno, Sarajevo, Zurich, London, Belgrade, NY, Oslo, and Valetta; and on national television stations in Japan, Switzerland, and Hong Kong.
Albert's Bicycle
Affectionately named after the favorite mode of transportation of two Swiss Alberts, Hoffman and Einstein — is truly a site for sore ears. The album blends one foot in the 21st century and the other in the 19th, weaving influences from Brazil, electronica, classical, and dance traditions.
Pirouette
Park
A lifetime of playing for dance classes inspired this CD–it’s for dancers who need music to uplift their classes when there’s no accompanist. (It’s also good for cleaning your house!) Weaving Brazilian and African polyrhythms with digital technology, this CD emphasizes rhythmic drive rather than melody and is varied in mood, meter, tempo, and style.
HereAfterHere
An evocative and sweeping score for Tandy Beal’s dance/theatre/video production HereAfterHere: a self-guided tour of eternity. The work asks the perennial and elusive question: what happens after we die? No harps or hymns-but rather a wide ranging curiosity and investigation of shifting harmonic clouds, voice, memory, mystery, and rhythm inspire this music. Rumi wrote “Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.”
Collaboration in Motion
Jon’s work spans many styles, which invites wild and unexpected collaborators—hiphop dancers, tango dancers, circus artists, videographers, Balinese dancers—These videos are from the show Scoville Units, produced at the Crocker Theatre in Aptos, video by Denise Gallant.
Photo credit: Shmuel Thaler
"Jon’s fertile imagination always inspires me to do huge projects. He’ll say ‘how about Insomnia as a theme for a show?’—My first reaction is huh?? Then it jumpstarts me to create both a solo show (NightLife) and a Pickle Family Circus show (Tossing & Turning). Or, he suggested in ‘86, ‘how about we market our upcoming show with a Japanese designer by starting a Japan Cultural Fair?’ Now years later it’s a landmark event in Santa Cruz! Jon brought Bobby McFerrin to accompany my class in the early 80’s and suggested we do some work together, starting a long collaboration. In the late 70’s on the end of a tour when we were all cranky, he put on Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. After it cheered us all up, he said ’you should make a wild NUT’—4 years later I did and Dance Mag wrote it was the first contemporary nut…Clearly, Jon is my forever muse.”
-Tandy Beal, Tandy Beal & Company
“Jon’s work is always exemplary and his music, thrilling. He has a remarkable ability to recognize the movement quality and aesthetic sense of a dance and then create music that is not only the perfect support but also brilliant on its own. Even after all the months of rehearsing and working with his scores, I still listen with delight-- in fact it can still move me to tears with its beauty as it did the first time I heard it. Beyond being the creator of wonderful music, Jon is an absolute pleasure as a collaborator–open, inventive, dependable, enthusiastic, and gifted. I’ve never worked with a composer who could match Jon in terms of a positive working relationship nor in his uncanny ability to sense exactly what the choreographer is looking for- and do it more exquisitely than one could imagine!"
-Phyllis Haskell
Choreographer, former Dean of the Arts, University of Utah
