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Jonathan Craft is a passionate and versatile musician who has worked professionally across the continent for well over a decade. He is currently serving as the Associate Music Director on the national tour of the Broadway musical “Cats”.
A proud native of Houston, Texas, Jonathan has performed with many of the top-tier orchestras, theaters, and ensembles of the South Texas region, including Theatre Under The Stars, Stages Repertory Theatre, the Alley Theatre, the Queensbury Theatre, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Symphony of Southeast Texas, the Austin Summer Pops, the ECHO Orchestra, and Lone Star Lyric Theatre.
Jonathan has a particular fondness for music and theatre education. In addition to maintaining a studio of private students, he has served as the MD for several youth theater programs, and even taught a Kindergarten music class in 2017! He was the staff pianist at the Kinkaid School from 2016-2019, and has MD’d collegiate productions at Sam Houston State University and the University of St. Thomas.
He is a frequent masterclass artist and clinician for Houston-area schools and musical theater programs, including the Humphreys School, Stages’ Young Artists Conservatory, and many others.
Jonathan’s first professional job after leaving school was at Grace Lutheran Church in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston, where he served as Music Minister for several years. Located in the heart of Houston’s LGBTQ community, the church had a formal commitment to minister to individuals who had been hurt by religion in the past. During his time there, Jonathan oversaw a remarkable reinvigoration of the church’s music program; within a year of his hiring, the choir had tripled in size and progressed from only ever singing simple unison pieces to performing full SATB a cappella works. He also produced and directed their first-ever choir concert, which successfully raised money for a brand new pipe organ.
In one of his rare non-musical endeavors, Jonathan worked as a co-host and sound engineer for the radio program “Queer Voices” on KPFT Houston from 2011-2016. In recognition of his excellence in producing segments and interviewing guests, he was named a finalist for OutSmart Magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards in 2015.
Jonathan was educated at Boston University and the Royal College of Music (London). He still proudly calls Houston his home, where he lives with his husband Edward and their three cats.