Jonathon Kirk is a composer, sound artist, and educator based in Chicago. His work includes instrumental, vocal, and electronic music and frequently incorporates elements derived from natural and environmental soundscapes. He is Professor of Music at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, USA.
Jonathon has held residencies at the Logos Foundation in Gent, Belgium (2000-2001) and the Petrified Forest National Park (2010). His music and multimedia works have been presented throughout North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia, including the Tate Modern in London, the London and Melbourne International Animation Festivals, Spark Festival, Festival Internazionale di Musica Elettroacustica del Conservatorio S. Cecilia in Rome, Santa Fe Currents New Media Festival, the Los Angeles Short film festival, the Courtisane Festival in Brussels, the Boston Cyberarts Festival, Listening in the Sound Kitchen at Princeton University, Visual Music Marathon, the European Capital of Culture in
Brugge, Soundtrack_Cologne festival, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnoligie (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany, Festival Musica Viva in Portugal, the Itaú Cultural in Sao Paulo, and the Centro Cultural de España in San Jose, Costa Rica. His compositions have been performed by such ensembles as the Spektral Quartet, Ensemble Dal Niente, Harvard Collegium Musicum, and members of Champ D'Action, Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble, and Ensemble Modern.
Along with composer Lee Weisert, he is a member of the Portable Acoustic Modification Laboratory (PAML), a collaborative sound installation team. PAML has been invited to present their sound installation work at festivals and venues across the country, and their research on technology has been presented at the New York Electroacoustic Music Festival, Shimmer Festival, Santa Fe Currents International New Media Festival, Morehead Planetarium, International International Conference for New Interfaces for Music Expression (NIME, 2009 & 2011), the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC, 2010, 2015 & 2016) and the TedX conference at UNC, Chapel Hill.
His music is published on Innova Records, Albany Records, Ears & Eyes Records, Garrett’s Kayak, and Medusa Critical Publications. He is currently a composer-in-residence with the Chicago-based chamber ensemble Picosa, a member (with Randall Hall) of Pendulum, and founding member of the Chicago-based post-rock group, Maurice. He has collaborated on several projects with Belgium-based composer Thomas Smetryns, which included a sound mapping of the Voeren in the Belgian province of Limburg. He completed his studies at Augustana, the Eastman School of Music, Brown University and Northwestern University. He lives with his wife, Joann Cho, and three children, Elaeth, Matthias, and Sara in River Forest, Illinois.