JONATHAN BONNY

BIO

 

The music career of Jonathan Bonny (°1992, Bruges) started at Conservatorium aan Zee in Ostend. He graduated there in 2010 for both piano and percussion. Besides his main instruments, he also got in touch with composition and conducting there. In 2015, Jonathan graduated cum maxima laude at the School of Arts, Royal Conservatory in Ghent. He also took composition courses there. He studied one year as an exchange student at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. In 2015, Jonathan continued his musical studies with a specialisation in ensemble percussion at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, where he got plenty of opportunities within the renowned percussion sextet Slagwerk Den Haag.  Jonathan attended many international masterclasses during his studies.

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The focus of Jonathan lies mainly withing the field of new arts. As a musician and composer, he actively builds towards a music culture that knows no distinction between genres. As a maker and (festival) organiser, he is consistantly looking for innovative ways to present contemporary arts to a bigger audience. In 2012, the music collective Headliner was found by Jonathan Bonny, Mirek Coutigny and Koen Quintyn. The three of them performed (often in challenging sceneries) own (co-) compositions and creations of other composers for piano, synths and percussion. From 2015 on, Headliner organised for three editions the annual festival En Avant Mars/Voorwaarts Maart at De Bijloke (Ghent). Also in 2015, Jonathan founded Kunstenfestival PLAN B in Bekegem together with Leontien Allemeersch and Jane Coppin. PLAN B is a well-received attempt to present young contemporary arts withing the challenging context of a small village. In order to focus more on performing his own work, Jonathan is currently developing the non-binary artpop alter ego JÓRMA (they/them). This project is fueled by the necessity to combine his artistic skills with his ideologies, and from the space that arose because of the pandemic. JÓRMA is developing a unique signature that combines music and pop culture with theatre, activism and performance art. JÓRMA advocates for vulnerability and empathy, and strives to build deep and sustainable connections with their audience from which they can reflect together on societal topics like gender, mental health and (in)equality. With this personal solo-project (supported by the Station Noord development trajectory) Jonathan builds bridges between pop and theatre, between working in Groningen and living in Rotterdam and between himself and the audience.

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Jonathan plays/played with Slagwerk Den Haag, AskolSchönberg, Blindman[Drums], Ensemble KLANG, Club Guy&Roni, The Dutch National Opera, HardScore, Flanders Opera Orchestra, Orkater and Silbersee. His compositions were performed by Spectra Ensemble, Diamanda La Berge Dramm, Lunapark, Casco Phil, De Compagnie and the Royal Belgian Navy Band. He composed the music for performances by Teddy's Last Ride, MoON Productions, BOOST Producties, Peergroup, Silbersee, Theater Sonnevanck, Nic Bruckman, Trio Tète-Bêche and VPRO. In 2012 he received the second price at the Yamaha Benelux percussion concours and in 2014 he won the first price in the category vibraphone at the international Percussion Arts Society concours in Italy. In 2016 he performed the winning composition (Stream for Marimba, Nikos Kokolakis) at the composition concours withing the TROMP international percussion competition. In 2020 Jonathan got nominated for the Keep an Eye Award. In 2021, JÓRMA's song introvert got nominated for the Rotterdam Track of the Year award. In 2022 JÓRMA was one of the five finalists at the Sena Performers Grote Prijs van Rotterdam competition, in the category singer-songwriter. Jonathan recently started a new job as a composition lecturer at the Music&Technology department of the HKU (Hogeschool voor de kunsten Utrecht). 

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