About
Hello, my name is Jonathan.
I am a composer.
Jonathan Bartz is an award winning composer living in Los Angeles, California. His music has been heard, recorded, and performed across the United States from Carnegie Hall in New York City to the scoring stages of Warner Brothers Studios.
Jonathan hails from Beloit, Wisconsin. He grew up enthralled with the magic of film and film music, absorbing the unique ways the two would combine to tell a story, feed the mind and move someone. Bartz is a classically trained composer having studied at St. Olaf College where he received a Bachelor of Music in Composition/Theory and The University of Southern California where he graduated with honors in the Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television program. He was accepted into the European American Music Alliance where he studied music composition with Robert Beaser (The Juilliard School) and Narcis Bonet (first generation disciple of Nadia Boulanger).
Bartz has several commissioned concert band works to his name. His symphonic concert band piece “The Valley of the Dry Bones” received honorable mention in the 2008 ASCAP / CBDNA Frederick Fennell Competition and was performed at the 2012 CBDNA National Conference in Greensboro North Carolina. His work “Tall Tales: Pecos Bill” was commissioned by the Arkansas State University Wind Ensemble and premiered at the 2010 CBDNA Southwestern Conference in Las Cruces New Mexico. It was most recently performed at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica California.
Education and Training
Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television
Bachelor of Music in Composition/Theory
Studied in the Robert Beaser studio, Juilliard School of Music
Assistant to Brian Tyler
Music Preparation, Head of Mockup Department
Awards and Notables
The New York Pops with Cheyenne Jackson at Carnegie Hall in New York City – Arrangements Performance
University of Southern California, Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television –
Harry Warren Award
ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Prize – Honorable Mention
Soli Fan Tutti Composition Competition, Darmstadt Germany – Winner
Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition – Winner
European / American Music Alliance – Acceptance, Harmony Award
Collaborations
Jonathan has had the distinct privilege of working for some of Hollywood’s most celebrated and acclaimed composers, such as John Williams, Alan Silevstri, John Debney, Danny Elfman and Brian Tyler. The following are some of his most recent high profile collaborations:
Music Sequencing
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Orchestrator
Music Sequencing
Music Preparation
Philosophy
MUSIC BORN OF A COMMON EXPERIENCE
The soul of Jonathan’s music lies within the orchestra, a medium by which music is born of energy, effort and a common experience. The combined strains of every musician and instrument in an orchestra represents the soul of a community more than an individual, the result of which any listener can appreciate. One of the primary functions of film music is to offer the audience an enhanced emotional experience. To that end, Jonathan believes the orchestra has a unique ability to breathe life into a score and evoke a purer, more organic and visceral response from it’s audience.
Jonathan’s musical voice follows in the tradition of such 20th century masters as John Williams, Bernard Herrmann and Igor Stravinsky, all of whom were able to effortlessly communicate with their audiences through imaginative orchestral writing to achieve a level of connection unattainable by many contemporary forms of music production.
In a fast changing landscape of film scoring where music often trends toward the plastic and synthetic, Jonathan is excited to maintain, evolve and reintroduce this symphonic tradition to a new generation of audiences and film directors allowing them to rediscover its beauty, its breadth, its depth and it’s magic!
Collaborate
LET’S MAKE SOME MUSIC!
Thanks for stopping by! If you want to collaborate with Jonathan, please use the message form below or contact him directly. For more frequent news and project updates, please follow him on social media.