Education
Jonathan earned a Bachelor of Music in Guitar Performance from Berklee College of Music, where he also focused on Composition and Audio Production. A recipient of the Berklee Achievement Scholarship and the John Philip Sousa Award, he graduated magna cum laude and was named to the Dean’s List. His training includes private and clinical instruction with renowned artists G.E. Smith, Larry Coryell, Roy Book Binder, Bill Kirchen, Patrick Sweaney, and Norman Zocher.
Performance Experience
Jonathan Hawkins is a DC-based guitarist/multi-instrumentalist, composer, and audio engineer. With an early upbringing in blues, early jazz, and folk-inspired music, Jonathan’s study and influences encompass elements of jazz, classical music, and a strong American, Brazilian, Malawian, and Spanish influence.
Jonathan has performed, taught, and entertained audiences worldwide, both as a backing guitarist and a showband guitarist. He has been featured in solo billings, and his commercial music credits include National and International tours of Broadway musicals “Mamma Mia!”, Farewell Tour”, “Flashdance: The Musical”, and “Bullets Over Broadway” ‘s 1st National Tour. Local credits include composing and performing for DC’s Studio Theatre productions, as well as regionally throughout the Midwest and Northeast as a hired guitarist & multi-instrumentalist.
With intense musical elements and a dynamic presence on stage, Jonathan performs lead guitar and backup vocals in the high-energy Maryland-based rock band Signal 13, which was voted Best Baltimore Band in 2020 by Baltimore Magazine. After their debut album “Destination Unknown,” Signal 13 picked up Hawkins to perform and assist in the re-writing and re-branding of the band’s earlier material, as well as co-composing new material for further releases. Jonathan has had the pleasure of performing with the band on opening slots for Tesla, Winger, KIX, Vixen, and Steven Adler, as well as festival spots on the 2021 Monsters on the Mountain and 2022 Monsters of Rock Cruise.
In addition to band work, Jonathan performs solo acts of varying styles, incorporating influences and performance styles of jazz, pop, world music, and extended techniques/altered tunings.
Teaching Experience
Jonathan has led instruction in group and private settings, specializing in band performance and organization, as well as guitar, bass, keyboard/synthesizer, and audio production.
Jonathan has served as director and lead instructor for “Rock Band Camp,” a student-band educational program designed in partnership with Southeast Ohio’s French Art Colony and Ariel Opera House.
In addition to band and individual programs, Jonathan designs sound systems that specialize in remote/distance performance, utilizing concepts and technologies found in Broadway pit orchestras, backing bands for large-scale performances, and professional ensembles worldwide.
At Levine
Jonathan loves to instill excellence in performance and confidence in one’s own abilities. His greatest goal, outside of a well-rounded music education, is for students to apply the principles he teaches in music to develop skills and good habits beyond the music and performance world.
Teaching Philosophy and Approach
Through setting goals that are both realistic and challenging, breaking down material into smaller, easily approached segments, and “putting the song under the microscope,” Jonathan’s approach to music demystifies many aspects of music theory and performance, allowing students access to material that may have seemed out of reach on their own.
Jonathan places great emphasis on planning out and setting goals, regular practice and study, and honest reflections and observations of one’s own progress.
In spite of the intense description, Jonathan has found success with this philosophy with students of all ages, experience levels, and walks of life.
More About Jonathan
Jonathan stays busy arranging, composing, and producing music/audio for commission, theatrical productions, and studio albums. Jonathan’s work has been featured in DC (and non-local) musicals, cruise-line production shows, adultswim.com games/apps, and a variety of virtual-reality installations hosted in museums nationwide.
Jonathan is a Private Pilot and member of Clearview Flying Club in Westminster, MD. He is a lover of the outdoors, bicycles and motorcycles, and the sea, with a dream of receiving a skipper’s certification in sailing and working up to a solo Atlantic crossing in a sailing vessel.
Outside of music and aviation, Jonathan enjoys the study of early cultures’ history, particularly the developments and discoveries found in the era of early humans, where concepts of mathematical and abstract representations, ritual, and religion are suspected to first emerge.
Learn more on his website.