Piano, Trumpet, Bass
Jonathan Greenberg attended music concerts while still in his mother's womb. Through his early childhood, both parents encouraged him to sing while they played piano. As a child, he would enter the music room after his father had finishing teaching his piano students, and the precocious Jonathan would play the student's lesson by memory.
"I remember my father taking me to weekly rehearsals with Musicum Colligium at Wagner College when I was only six years old. We sang ancient music, including Gregorian Chants and played Renaissance music on the old-fashioned instruments, which prepared me for a lifetime of music-making."
While learning how to play piano, Jonathan was given a violin and studied the Suzuki Method. He also played recorder, melodica, and accordion. He started playing B flat trumpet when he was eight years old. School bands and community orchestras kept him performing on a regular basis. He took up the French horn, flugelhorn, plus the C and D trumpets. When he was twelve, he won a Sam Ash Music Camp Contest. He played at Carnegie Hall four times between 1972 - 1976, and at Alice Tully Hall once for the bicentennial celebration before moving to Virginia.
When he finished high school, Jonathan was awarded the John Phillips Sousa Award for being the number one player in the band and for writing a Star Wars half-time show for the marching band. He received a scholarship to attend Virginia Commonwealth University and received a Music Performance degree with a minor in Jazz Studies. He has played trumpet with Ray Pittman & the O'Kaysions, the Coasters, the Drifters, the O'Jays, Temptations, and Ringling Bros/Barnum & Bailey Circus. He also played keyboards for several groups including the Platters. More recently, Jonathan has performed with Gloria Gaynor, Darlene Love, Howard Tate plus Little Anthony & the Imperials.
He has also had a distinguished career in the recording studio. "As much as I love to play a live performance, I treasure the recordings I made with Jimmy Knepper, Frank Foster, Kenny Washington, Loren Schoenberg, Nino Rossanno, Joe Kennedy Jr, Steve Wilson, James Genus, Joel Futterman, Russell Scarborough, Nick Kepics, The Ray Charles Rhythm Section, The Band of Steve's plus Chez Roue, and The Central Virginia Jazz Orchestra (CVJO)."
Many of Jonathan's teachers have contributed their knowledge to his musical foundation, from Jimmy & Maxine Knepper and Harold Leiberman in New York to Steve Carlson and Rolla Durham in Virginia. "They gave as much to me as I was able to understand. Their systematic approach to teaching is how I carry on their work. Aspects of Math and Science are included within the subject of leaning music in many ways. However, my goal is to make music in such a way that it is not tedious work, but educational play. After all, that's why we call it playing music!"