Jonathan Dimmock is recognized internationally as a concert artist with a probing intellect, warm stage presence, and love of communicating. His musicianship is enjoyed by at least 100,000 people each year through his constant performing and recording. An innovative programmer, he plays weekly at the Legion of Honor Museum (San Francisco) where he is the Principal Organist. He has served the San Francisco Symphony as regular organist and harpsichordist since 2005, appointed by Michael Tilson Thomas, frequently recording and traveling with the Symphony. As a freelancer he is in constant demand as an accompanist and recitalist. Touring several times each year, he is one of the few organists in the world to perform on six continents, from St. Peter’s in Rome to Notre Dame in Paris, and from Carnegie Hall to the Cultural Center in Hong Kong.
A graduate of Oberlin and Yale, he had the unique privilege of being the first American to serve as Organ Scholar of Westminster Abbey after which he continued his career in the United States serving three cathedrals: St. John the Divine (New York City), St. Mark’s (Minneapolis), and Grace (San Francisco). Jonathan bases his freelance career from his home in San Francisco – where, for over twelve years, he was Director of Music at St. Ignatius Church (the largest Jesuit church in the United States). He is especially renowned for his interpretations of the music of Bach and Messiaen. His love of Bach led him to found American Bach Soloists in 1988, and to serve as its General Director for many years as well as chorus director and keyboardist. His affinity for the music of Messiaen began as a teenager when he was drawn to the composer’s mysticism. Messiaen, himself, told him that he has “a perfect understanding of my music.”
Jonathan has recorded more than fifty CDs and can be heard on the Grammy Award-winning CD of Mahler Symphony 8 with the San Francisco Symphony. In addition to hundreds of listings on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, and other streaming sites, he has been interviewed and featured on numerous radio and television stations including National Public Radio, Radio France, BBC3, ABC (Australia), MTV2 (Budapest), BCC (Barbados), and SABC (South Africa). His teachers and mentors include Olivier Messiaen, Gillian Weir, Jean Langlais, Simon Preston, Peter Hallock, Haskell Thomson, William Porter, Thomas Murray, and Harald Vogel.
Jonathan’s creativity is that of a visionary. His numerous blog writings, his passion for communicating, and his personal focus have been the impetus for his founding of five nonprofit organizations. The two which he is currently focused are The Resonance Project (TRP) and Artists’ Vocal Ensemble (AVE). The purpose of TRP is to use live music in conflict transformation for the purpose of finding common ground. This project (www.Music-Resonance.org) has led him to interview some of the greatest musicians in the world, including Kurt Masur, Alice Parker, Mason Bates, Charles Dutoit, András Schiff, and others, all of whom share his excitement about the interface between music and neuroscience. It has garnered attention from the United Nations, the U.S. Dept. of State, and a personal letter from President Obama. AVE (www.ArtistsVocalEnsemble.org) engages professional singers singing sacred choral music within the context of a Soundbath, restoring the compositions’ original intent of aiding contemplation and transcendence.
Jonathan is deeply committed to sharing the transformative power of music with the whole world. His website is JonathanDimmock.com.
“This will be our reply to violence:
to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”
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