Composer / Pianist / Vocal Coach / Tenor / Composition Teacher / Rock Musician / Musical Polymath

Jonathan Thompson is a Mexican-American oboist, recitalist, and college lecturer in Dallas. He completed is DMA at the University of North Texas. He is formerly a lecturer at Northwestern University, teaching the Double Reeds Techniques Class for Bienen's Music Education Department. He has performed with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra, the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Composers Orchestra, and the Wisconsin Philharmonic.

He is the oboist for Fonema Consort, a contemporary chamber music group based in Chicago, Illinois. 

Jonathan attended Northwestern University, where he graduated in 2011 with department honors. He studied with Michael Henoch and Scott Hostetler. He stayed at Northwestern to complete his masters degree where he was awarded the School of Music Eckestein Scholarship. Upon graduation in 2013, he became the first recipient of the Ray Still Award.

Eric Malmquist (b. 1985) writes earnestly heartfelt and engaging music. He draws on a deep love of early music and modern influences to produce works that are focused and emotional.

He has been commissioned by the Chicago Composers Orchestra, the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, tubist Scott Tegge, the International Chamber Artists, the Newberry Consort and the Wicker Park Choral Singers.

His commissioned work Prairie Music for CYSO was featured on Chicago’s Ear Taxi Festival in October 2016 and at Midwest Clinic in December 2016. CCO and WPCS co-commissioned his Blemish’d Muse, a twenty-minute work for choir and orchestra, in 2016. His song cycle If You Travel Far Enough was the very first commission of the ICA, and was featured on Live from WFMT in 2015. Michael Hall premiered his Sonata for Viola and Piano in 2014, and Gaudete Brass premiered his Three Preludes in 2013.

His music has been performed outside of Chicago on both coasts and in Texas, and has been featured repeatedly on 98.7WFMT. His music has been recorded by VOX 3 on the disc “New Song” and by pianist Jonathan Hannau.

Michigan native — composer of operas, songs, dance works, and chamber works.

Praised as “rich with vivid imagery” and “highly detailed and multi-layered” (New Music Box), Evan Ware’s music is one of angular, bristling energy that ranges from clamorous sublimity to reverent tenderness. Through his works, he grapples with many uncompromising challenges in 21st century life, from childhood trauma and recovery, neurodivergence, and social isolation, to our critically overburdened abilities to focus. Each piece, therefore, is an invitation for composer, performer, and audience to find each other, to make community, and—amid our struggles—to feel and think deeply together.

Evan’s music has been performed in the United States, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and in Canada, as well as on CBC Radio 2, Michigan Radio, and WCMU. He has been privileged to work with pianist Nadia Shpachenko, singer Amy Petrongelli, the ÆPEX Sinfonietta, Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montéal, the Arraymusic Ensemble, the University of Michigan Javanese Gamelan Ensemble, the Donald Sinta Saxophone Quartet, and the symphonic wind ensembles of Central Michigan University and Cal Poly Pomona. Evan’s music has been supported by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the City of Ottawa, among others. Evan also maintains an active career as a scholar of popular and multimedia music. He is Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Cal Poly Pomona.

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