ABOUT JON

JTV Founder, Educator, Singer, Fashionisto, Foodie, Traveler, Self proclaimed “Uomo Rinascimentale' (Renaissance Man), Lover of Life

Born and raised in upstate New York, and always singing and dancing anywhere and everywhere, Jon joined his first official singing group at age 5, when he was recruited into his school's chorus, after a stand-out performance as the frog in the kindergarten musical - "The Little Red Hen."

That first chorus really cemented his love of music, and with it began a route of performance threaded throughout his entire academic and social life.

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In school, he performed in all of the vocal groups and outlets he could find. From the general admission choruses, to invite only groups like his middle school's "Con Brio" and high school's "Select Choir." Having taken private weekly classical voice lessons from 6th to 12th grade, he auditioned and was awarded participation in 8 annual All-County Choruses, 4 annual Area All-State Choruses, and 4 annual All-State Choruses. He performed in countless staged musical productions: Bye Bye Birdie (Albert Peterson), Annie (Rooster Hanigan), Sound of Music (Uncle Max). During his last two years of high school, he was selected to tutor elementary school students and assigned to the music and choral department.

In 2002, he was accepted full scholarship into Geva Theatre’s prestigious Summer Conservatory (www.gevatheatre.org) focusing that summer on Musical Theater. He performed as Nicely Nicely (Guys and Dolls) and opened the summer showcase with the iconic song “Horse Right Here” at the end of the semester.

At NYU (2003-2007) Jon studied Music Education and History. In 2004, Jon was invited into NYU’s all Male A-Capella group, "Mass Transit." The next two and a half years, he traveled all over the country, from Boston to L.A., performing. Widely considered NYU's most successful a cappella group, Mass Transit was deemed one of the best national a cappella groups during Jon's participation, having been selected for the coveted national "Best of College A Cappella" (BOCA) CD compilation in 2005, which is sold online at Amazon.com.

After college Jon explored many artistic endeavors, he traveled the world as a flight attendant, worked on costume design for Bollywood films, designed jewelry for top celebrity pop stars, styled for Vogue and W Magazines, but he always missed singing.

Then he became a nanny to a young fellow artist and it all clicked into place. All of the music programs he took his young ward to were, frankly, barely satisfactory in Jon’s mind. So he developed pre!Chorus for her and her friends. Now it has expanded to a fully developed and realized program, and was grown into what is now JTV!

More, because of his success with pre!Chorus and JTV, Jon has been recruited by several Manhattan and Brooklyn private schools and churches to develop, teach, and lead their adolescent music programs.

Jon shares a widely held belief that learning to sing and learning a language is similar in that beginning lessons at the youngest possible age will yield to more successful and long-lasting results. The voice is like a muscle, the earlier a child begins to use it, learning to train the instrument and ear, the stronger that muscle will grow, allowing for maximum musical development.

As a lifelong vocal and choral student, Jon has created truly happy and exciting musical memories and dear friendships. His vocal technique, talent, confidence and enthusiasm for the arts and life, he most certainly attributes to his very early and constant musical exposure. His own early musical direction is therefore something he will always treasure, but more something he loves to share with children who are also musically interested!