Dr. Jonathan Sharp is currently Assistant Professor of Percussion at Iowa State University, where he teaches private lessons, percussion methods, percussion pedagogy and literature and directs the percussion ensemble. He is a highly regarded percussion artist and educator with an extensive and diverse teaching background, holding previous faculty appointments at Morehead State University and Centre College. Dr. Sharp has performed concerts throughout the United States, Europe and Asia and has performed with a wide variety of ensembles, including the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Sinfonia Da Camera and Pink Martini. He was also a member of the Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps snare line in 2005.
An advocate of electro-acoustic music, Dr. Sharp remains active in commissioning and premiering new works for percussion and electronics. He has been a guest clinician and performer at PAS Days of Percussion throughout the Midwest and the South presenting electro-acoustic solo percussion music. Dr. Sharp also frequently tours schools presenting recitals, workshops and clinics on topics including electro-acoustic percussion, contemporary marimba, multiple percussion, concert snare drum and marching percussion. His writing has been published by the PAS Educator's Companion, the Percussive Arts Society's pedagogical journal. He has also recorded an album entitled The Percussion Works of Warren Benson with the Kollective Percussion Group, of which he is a founding member.
Dr. Sharp received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Percussion Performance from the University of Kentucky under James Campbell. He is also a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (MM) and Morehead State University (BM), where he studied with William Moersch, Ricardo Flores, Brian Mason and Frank Oddis.
