Jonah Sendlin, Composer

Ever since I was a boy, I’ve had a deep connection with rhythm. It seeped into my bones and wrapped itself around my DNA. My family always liked to say that they knew what I would become before I did. Still in diapers, I would waddle and walk around my childhood home “drumming” on anything I could reach (at my stature, that predominantly meant myself). There was one pattern I distinctly remember drumming over and over again, and only recently did I decide to transcribe it to see what it actually was. Little did my toddler self know that I was jamming on an 11/8 groove. 

In my elementary school system, fourth grade was the year we could choose to be in band or orchestra. We would be allowed to “try” up to three instruments before we chose our paths. My decision was to play Ode to Joy on a glockenspiel and call it a day. I knew exactly where I belonged. 

It wasn’t until High School that I learned I wanted to share my adoration of rhythm - and music as a whole - with as many people as I could. My first experiences in writing not only came from a desire to express myself, but from a deeper desire to engage others and allow for people to connect through music, through my music. My goal was, and still is, for people to love and connect with music the way I always have. 

Today I continue to write for this purpose. Every measure, every note. Music is to be cherished, inspiring, and thought-provoking. It is to make one love, hate, dance, or cry. Music encapsulates the entirety of the human experience. Through my music, I want to allow everyone who engages with it to live this humanity. 

Everyone beats to their own drum (though it may not be the 11/8 drum of my youth). All my music is doing is giving the world a pair of sticks.