The vision, emotion and energy of music has been for Jon, like any full blooded musician, a lifelong love and fascination. From the age of 11, his focus was on playing, composing, recording and discovering the world of music.
He studied first at the Leeds College of Music, and later graduated from the Birmingham Conservatoire.
He was drawn to the music of theatre, TV and film; and after graduating in 1980, Jon worked as musical director and composer for the Birmingham Repertory Company. Productions included the play The Triumph of Death in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company for which he composed his first soundtrack.
He continued to compose for modern ballet, theatre & television productions in the UK.
As a pianist & keyboarder he played gigs, orchestral concerts, and tours in Great Britain and abroad, and as a studio musician for radio, TV, and commercial recordings.
In 1991 Jon moved to Hamburg and has conducted or played keyboards for the musicals Cats, Phantom of the Opera, Fosse, Mamma Mia, Lion King and Sister Act.
In 2016 he arranged songs for the Young Voices concert involving 6000 children in the Barcleycard Arena in Hamburg, and for the 2016 Music Rocks concerts in Hamburg for a choir of 80 singers, the European Chamber Orchestra plus band. Other credits include music for the The Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Ingo Metzmacher, the water circus Crescend’O for Disneyland Paris and the musical Teddy, which was a commission from the Steiff Company.
Jon wrote a piano concerto, Through A Passage Of Time and the musical The Garden Behind the Moon which was staged with great success in Canada in 2004. Celtic Journey, for solo violin and orchestra was premiered in 2016 at the British Flair Open Air Proms Concert in Hamburg. For TV, he has written music for HTV & LWT in the UK, and NDR, NTV & ARD in Germany.
He has composed production music tracks for media published by Music Revolution, Roba and Tree Of Arts Music Publishers.
In his studio he prepares, records and produces music for soloists, musical events, TV and film productions working in association with composers, producers and larger recording studios.
Jon has worked as accompanist, vocal coach and musical director at leading musical schools in Germany including the Joop van der Ende Academy and Stage School in Hamburg and The Folkwang Musik Schule in Essen, as well as many workshops, master classes & theatre projects.
You can listen to John Mortimer's music here