ABOUT JON SHEN

Jazz Fusion, Neo-Soul, Gospel Funk Musician
Singer, Pianist and Keyboardist
Composer, Producer
Band Leader, Music Director
Contemporary Music Educator
World Music Trophy Awardee

Jon Shen is a singer, keyboardist, composer and producer whose passion for music and composition runs deep in his soul. Improvisation comes naturally to Jon, as he sees music as a language and possesses an extensive musical vocabulary. Jon enjoys using rhythm and harmony to express the world from his creative perspective. You will hear a solid background of Jazz, Funk, Gospel, Soul, R&B, Latin, Afro-Beat, Urban Pop, EDM, and more elements in his music. Jon rarely composes within a single genre; instead, he blends multiple styles to form a unique listening experience. His time spent living in the US and Spain has also helped to infuse his compositions with a special mellowness.

Jon has trained in “Speech Level Singing” for many years. His voice has the ability to adapt to various musical styles such as Classical Jazz and Contemporary Neo-Funk Gospel, dance freely between high and low pitches, and across varying dynamics and frequencies. He can improvise without restraint, and has been deemed a “Vocal Player”.

In addition to singing, Jon is also good at playing a variety of instruments, including piano, drums, violin, bass, guitar, etc., which makes his arrangement thinking broader and freer. Most of his works are also arranged and recorded by him alone.

Jon began to learn violin with his violinist mother, and started his classical piano journey at the age of 5. At 13, he dived into the world of pop music, formed a band where he played the keyboard, composed and arranged songs. His music was heavily influenced by musicians such as Marcus Miller, D’Angelo, Roy Hargrove, Tony Allen, George Duke, Don Blackman, etc. At church, Jon played the keyboard and was also the lead singer with the band that mainly played modern praise song such as Blues Gospel and Hill Song. At the age of 18, he held his first solo concert and was admitted to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and was majoring in Musical Theatre Performance. It was there that he studied under the famous singers Wang Zuoxin, Dong Fang, and Yang Xiaoyong. Then he was exchanged to NYU Steinhardt and studied under professor Frank Schiro. At 23, Jon was admitted to the Berklee College of Music where he studied Jazz and went on to attain a master’s degree in contemporary music performance (Vocal and Piano, Contemporary Arrangement and Productions). At Berklee, he studied under renowned Jazz and Latin singer Celia Mur, Spanish jazz pianist Polo Orti, Drummer Mariano Steimberg, and Enric Alberich, professor of Contemporary Harmony Theory.

Jon has performed many live concerts in different countries and cities such as the US, the UK, Japan, Hong Kong, mainland China, and others. He has performed alongside many well-known masters and artists such as Patrice Rushen, Siedah Garrett from the US, Jazz pianist Marc Mangen from Luxembourg, Hong Kong singer Gin Lee, and Candy Lo, to name a few.

- From 2012 to 2014, he participated in the large-scale musical "Loulan", the classic musical "Little Me", the opening ceremony of the Shanghai International Film Festival and many other performances.

- Singer and keyboardist in “B-Funk”, a Berklee Alumni band, from 2014 to 2015, where they performed at many Jazz Fusion and Neo Soul-Funk style concerts in the US and Europe, including the "European Summer Music Festival", "Spanish American Music and Culture Concert Series", "Valencia Lago Del Conciertos" in Spain, etc.

- Established a music company JON Music Limited in 2014, and began to engage in music composing, music production, and education worldwide.

- Composed and produced the song “Pear Flower” in 2015, fusing oriental music style with soul and jazz. It received acclaim from Berklee professors and is used as a teaching example for the “Contemporary Arrangement” course. It won the 2017 World Music Trophy.

- In 2016 and 2017, Jon toured in China Mainland, performed at Shanghai JZ, Guangzhou Being Wild, Shenzhen MIDI, Xiamen Midai and etc., gave a special performance of his rearrangement of the classic Taiwanese song “Bāng Tshun-hong” in the Jazz style, and he was invited to attend many local interviews, performed a live recording of this song with the band on multiple TV Shows and radio programs.

- In 2017, Jon toured in the UK, received an invitation to be a guest performer at the “Chinese Song UK finals" held in Manchester Central, organized and performed personal charity concert “LUV Jazz and Funk” in Leeds.

- In 2018-2019, Jon composed and produced his album “Sole Divinity” with and worldwide release.

- In 2019-2020, Jon officially formed the band "Jazove Mixtape", hold tours and new album concerts in many countries and regions with the band.

- In 2020, Jon moved to Hong Kong to regroup the band with some outstanding musicians, now signed with Divine Field Records under the new name "Jazove Mixtape", and they play regularly in Hong Kong music events.

- Since 2021, Jon has been traveling to Hong Kong and has been responsible for performing, composing, arranging and producing for various music units. He has worked with many well-known Hong Kong artists such as Gin Lee, Candy Lo, Crystal Cheung, J.Arie, Jocelyn Chan, Mansonvibes, and Jonathan Wong, to name a few.

- In 2022, Jon and his own label's music production team - Orbit JX3 released a new Hybrid Future Space music album "The JX3 Federation", which is also his first instrumental/film scoring album in the role of a composer and producer.

- In 2023, he released the live music EP album "Sole Divinity (The 3rd Anniversary Live)".

As a musician, Jon not only composes and performs, but he is also devoted to contemporary music education for aspiring musicians. His approach to teaching music is to teach it like a language. He combines technique, contemporary theory, practical application and uses listening, observation, speaking, and writing as tools to learn. He guides students to develop their listening, playing, and improvisational skills to become well-rounded musicians. The goal is to give students the ability to use music as a language to build their own masterpieces. Jon’s students have gone on to become professional singers, performers, composers, arrangers, teachers, and to work in the contemporary music industry. Jon continues to collect musical elements from around the world and to integrate them and his life experiences into his music and teaching practice.

Every style of music originates from a certain place, but music is meant to be shared and played around the world as ONE - music and musician can't be labeled by any place or race. Music is a gift from God, we can all appreciate and learn from it, rising above racial and ethnic barriers. Having an open perspective as a musician allows us to be freer when we play and compose, learn about different cultures, customs, and history through music, then we can take different styles and fuse them to form diverse possibility of musical language. Probably this is the true mission of a music craftsman.

——————Bio in Chinese 中文介紹 ⬇️——————

融合爵士、新騷靈、放克福音音樂家
歌手、鋼琴及鍵盤演奏家
作曲編曲家、音樂製作人
樂隊主領、音樂總監
現代音樂教育家
美國World Music Trophy獲獎者

<音樂特徵>

Jon Shen是一位喜愛用自身音樂語彙創作和表演的音樂家，在音樂中常即興使用豐富多變的節奏點、和聲和樂句去表達他想像的情境和世界觀，因此作品充滿個人色彩。從他的音樂中能聽到堅實的Jazz、Funk、Gospel、Soul、R&B、Latin、Afro-Beat、Urban Pop、EDM等風格的音樂背景，卻又不拘泥於單一風格，融合出屬於他特有的聽覺動態，再加上美國和西班牙的旅居生活，使他的音樂靈動而灑脫。多年研習「Speech Level Singing」聲樂技術，令他擁有自由行走於高低音、胸頭聲的soulful gospel聲線，外加濃厚的人聲合唱編排和自由的即興，而被譽為「Vocal Player」。除了演唱之外，Jon還擅長演奏多樣樂器，包括鋼琴、鼓、小提琴、Bass、吉他等，令他的編曲思維更寬闊和自由，其大部分作品的編曲錄製也由他一人演奏完成。

<成長及教育背景>

3歲跟隨身為小提琴演奏家的母親學習小提琴；5歲學習古典鋼琴；13歲開始迷戀流行音樂，在中學組建樂隊擔任歌手、鍵盤手並創作編排歌曲，音樂上深受Marcus Miller、D'Angelo、Roy Hargrove、Tony Allen、George Duke、Don Blackman等音樂家的影響；同時也在這個階段開始教會的司琴和領唱，所在的敬拜樂隊以現代詩歌、藍調Gospel和Hill Song為主；18歲舉辦首場個人音樂會，演唱經典流行歌曲及音樂劇選段；同年赴上海音樂學院，主修音樂劇演唱、表演、舞蹈，師從著名歌唱家王作欣、董芳和楊小勇教授，並赴紐約NYU Steinhardt學院交換，師從Frank Schiro訓練音樂劇演唱；23歲赴美國伯克利音樂學院碩士院（Berklee College of Music）深造爵士樂表演（演唱、鋼琴）及編曲製作，並於2015年於Berklee Valencia獲得現代音樂表演（Contemporary Performance）碩士學位，在校曾師從爵士歌唱家Celia Mur、西班牙著名爵士鋼琴家Polo Orti、爵士鼓演奏家Mariano Steimberg、現代和聲理論教授Enric Alberich等。

<主要歷程>

他曾在美國、英國、日本、中國大陸及香港等地舉行多場現場演出，曾與多位著名大師及藝人同台合作演出，如美國流行天後Siedah Garrett、葛萊美獎得主Funk R&B鋼琴家及歌手Patrice Rushen、知名鼓手Chris Dave、盧森堡爵士鋼琴家Marc Mangen、香港歌手李幸倪、盧巧音等。

- 2012-2014年先後參演大型音樂劇《樓蘭》、經典音樂劇《Little Me》、上海國際電影節開幕式等演出。

- 2014-2015年與同屆Berklee校友組建樂團「B-Funk」並擔任歌手和鍵盤手，以現代Jazz Fusion & Neo Soul-Funk為主打風格，活躍於美國及歐洲各大音樂表演活動，包括「歐洲Summer音樂節」、「西班牙American Music and Culture系列音樂會」、「西班牙Valencia Lago Del Conciertos露天音樂會」等。

- 2014年成立音樂公司JON Music Limited，開始為全球範圍提供音樂創作、音樂製作及教學。

- 2015年創作製作及發行的《夢醒梨花（Pear Flower）》首次嘗試將東方韻律同西方靈魂樂、爵士樂進行融合，受到Berklee音樂學院教授與歐洲樂迷們的青睞，該曲曾在伯克利音樂學院「Contemporary Arranging」課程作為教學範例，亦憑藉此曲斬獲2017年度「美國World Music Trophy」音樂獎項。

- 2016年於中國內地巡迴演出，包括JZ爵士上海音樂節、廣州別野、深圳MIDI、廈門迷待等多地進行專場演出，改編成爵士風格的經典台語歌曲《望春風》廣受好評，並受到表演當地多家廣播媒體節目組邀請進行訪談和節目現場錄製。

- 2017年於英國巡迴演出，受邀於Manchester Central舉行的「Chinese Song UK (唱響英倫歌手大賽)」決賽現場擔任表演嘉賓，並與英國Leeds舉辦個人慈善專場音樂會「LUV Jazz-Funk Concert」。

- 2018-2019年間潛心創作製作首張唱作專輯《Sole Divinity》於全球發行。

- 2019-2020年正式組建樂團「Jazove Mixtape」，並帶領樂團於多個國家及地區舉行巡迴演出和新專輯音樂會。

- 2021年起陸續往來香港，並為不同音樂團體擔任表演、作曲、編曲製作等工作，曾與李幸倪Gin Lee、盧巧音Candy Lo、張紋嘉Crystal Cheung、J.Arie雷深如、陳明熹Jocelyn Chan、張進翹Mansonvibes、王梓軒Jonathan Wong等知名香港藝人合作。

- 2022年Jon聯合自家廠牌的音樂製作團隊Orbit JX3推出全新的Hybrid Future Space音樂專輯《The JX3 Federation》，也是個人首張以作曲家、製作人角色推出的純音樂/影視配樂專輯。

- 2023年推出《Sole Divinity (The 3rd Anniversary Live)》現場音樂EP專輯。

作為音樂人，他不僅從事音樂表演和製作，且潛心研究系統的現代音樂教學，提倡「語言式現代音樂教學」的他將技巧、理論、實踐應用有機結合，加入語言學習中的「聽、看、說、寫」概念，著重引導學員開發即興演奏演唱和即興創作、即聽即彈即唱、用自己的音樂語言建立音樂等能力，並以培養全能型音樂人為目標，其學員已不乏成為歌手、演奏家、創作人、編曲製作人、教師，以及在現代音樂行業的工作者。他同時也沒有停下遊歷世界的腳步，用生活感受去收集來自不同地區及民族的音樂元素並融入自身的音樂語匯，以繼續創作、表演、教授更多樣的音樂性及音樂理念。

每種音樂都是從某個地方和民族發源的，但區域和種族絕對不是用來判斷音樂或音樂人的標籤。音樂本是上帝賜給人類的一種世界性語言，無論風格或出處，都可以用「世界人」的身份跨越地域種族局限去認識學習它們，這是作為musician應有的獨立視野，這除了能讓音樂創作可以更自由及更多可能性之外，也能通過音樂而認識不同的文化背景、生活習俗和價值觀等，然後通過喜好去融合它們形成更多的音樂語言，好像將手裡收集到越來越多款式的積木通過設計拼搭出更多組合及可能性，也許這種追求和創造更多可能性，就是音樂人的真正使命。