User:Olivierer/Jonathan Reevs

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Jonathan Reeves is an English born guitarist/composer. Jonathan began playing the classical guitar at the age of thirteen. He later became interested in blues/rock, his influences being Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughn, was given an electric guitar for his fifteenth birthday. Jonathan returned to his roots studying the classical guitar at Canterbury Christ Church University where he had lesson from Jeff Alexander (Lute specialist) and frequent master classes from one of Britain's leading classical guitarist John Mills. At university was able to study the electric guitar along side the classical guitar for which James Dean was his mentor. James introduced Jonathan to jazz musicians such as Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Mike Stern, and Wes Montgomery. Whom were to be his main influences through out his twenties. He also had electric guitar master classes from jazz guitarist Gary Potter, and from session guitarists David Goodes, and Malcolm MacFarlane. After completing a Bachelor of Arts Degree (With Honors)in Music in 2000 Jonathan continued his education at Christ Church and in 2002 Jonathan was awarded a Master's Degree in Music.

Canada
After graduating from university Jonathan was a freelance guitarist as well as a Peripatetic teacher visiting various schools in Kent along side teaching the guitar privately from his home studio. Within a year of graduating from Christ Church Jonathan decided to emigrate to Canada.

Composing for TV/Radio
In 2008 Jonathan became interested in composing music for television and radio. Throughout his twenties Jonathan was enthralled in jazz improvisation, extemporaneous composition, however, around this time period he was searching for something more solid, tangible, notated. Through his academic studies in music and his wide musical tastes in music so therefore he is able to compose in a myriad of genres that are displayed on his website (see link below).

Solo guitar compositions
During this time Jonathan's influences started to change too. He was becoming more and more interested in solo finger-style guitarist rather than being part of a band. As a solo classical guitarist Jonathan enjoyed performing piece's by Bach, Weiss, Tarrega, and Villa Lobos (his personal favorite), but was always drawn towards the creative side that jazz had to offer. When he discovered solo guitarists such as Andrew York, Don Ross, and Michael Hedges was keen to compose his own solo guitar music instead of performing music by another composer. Jonathan is currently building a collection of original compositions for solo acoustic guitar both classical and finger-style that he hopes to record in the near future. Some of these are currently on You Tube (see link below).

Jonathan currently resides in Stevensville/Fort Erie, Ontario, where he continues to compose, perform, and teach as his full time profession.