Percussionist/Composer, Jonathan Ovalle, is the Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Toledo. His responsibilities include applied instruction of both symphonic and jazz percussion, directing both the percussion and Latin jazz ensembles, teaching the percussion methods course, and performing with the faculty jazz combo. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music, where he studied with Michael Udow, Julie Spencer, Michael Gould, Gerald Cleaver, and Salvatore Rabbio. He was formerly the Percussion Coordinator for the Plymouth Canton Educational Park in Canton, MI from 2001-2006.
As a concert percussionist and chamber musician, his experience includes time as a member of the Sarasota Opera as well as participation in number of world premieres, with appearances at PASIC and the International Convention of Computer Music. As a jazz vibist and conguero, he has collaborated with drummer/composer Roland Vazquez and his ensemble and was an original member of the Latin Jazz quintet Los Gatos. He can be heard on recordings with jazz artists such as Los Gatos, Paul Vornhagen, the Paul Keller Orchestra, and with the Funk/Soul/RnB group, Balancing Act.
Active as a performer, he has recently been heard in concert with New Music Detroit, with his Afro-Cuban jazz quartet, Rumbatá, as well as fronting the J.O. Trio, a pop/rock group featuring him on piano and vocals as a singer-songwriter. An accomplished arranger and composer, he has served as both a marching wind and percussion arranger and design consultant for a number of competitive marching bands in Michigan, Ohio, Texas, and New York and is also a chief designer/arranger/instructor for the WGI Independent World Class Drumline, REDLINE, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His concert music is currently published by jw3 publications.
He is a member of the Percussive Arts Society, The American Composers Forum, and BMI.