B.Mus., New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, Massachusetts (1981)
Teachers included Theodore Lettvin, Jeannene Dowis and Victor Rosenbaum

Musical Instructor, Birmingham Southern College, Birmingham, Alabama (1981-84)

Jonathan Cole was a composer, conductor, music director and pianist. A native of Philadelphia, he received his formal musical training at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Cole held a position as musical instructor at Birmingham Southern College from 1981 to 1984, and as musical director of the Town and Gown Theatre Birmingham Summerfest at the University of Alabama in Birmingham from 1983 to 1986. He conducted the Alabama Symphony Summerfest Pops Orchestra during the summer seasons of 1985 and 1986.

Cole served for seven years as director of music at the Omaha Playhouse in Omaha, Nebraska, where he composed the score for Willa Cather's My Antonia. His orchestral scores include Macbeth, produced by The Nebraska Shakespeare Festival and Julius Caesar, produced by The Playhouse as part of the International Fest Of Theatre. Cole received four awards from the Omaha Theatre Arts Guild for Outstanding Musical Direction and Best Original Score.

Other original scores for the theatre include Conestoga Stories and Ichabod, both published by Anchorage Press, Alice: A Curious Adventure, Take the Sky, and Spa (A Very Hot Musical). The musical Conestoga Stories, written with Susan Baer Beck, was a finalist in the 1990 National Youth Theatre Playwriting Competition and was named as "one of the top ten musicals for youth in the country." Conestoga Stories, Alice: A Curious Adventure and Take the Sky were first performed by the Nebraska Theatre Caravan, the professional touring wing of the Omaha Playhouse.

Cole also worked as musical director for several Off-Broadway shows in New York, including The Birdseed and The Blockbuster for Music Theatre Works and the 1987 revival of Take Me Along at the Equity Library Theater.

In the 1990s he became director and co-conductor (with John Bennett) of the River City Mixed Chorus, Omaha's gay and lesbian chorus.

Cole's composition Ye Shall Come Out With Joy! (1994), for SATB chorus, mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, horn, percussion and piano, was commissioned by the Chorus for its 10th anniversary Gay Pride Concert and is published by Yelton Rhodes Music. The section entitled Hold Strong Together, based on two songs from Conestoga Stories, has been performed by the Chorus as an anthem for the AIDS crisis and is published by Yelton Rhodes in a separate edition.

His last work, An Anthem Trilogy for SATB chorus, piano, brass sextet and two percussionists, was co-commissioned by the River City Mixed Chorus and Harmony: A Colorado Chorale, and premiered by the River City Mixed Chorus in 1997 under the direction of John Bennett.

Cole wrote:
"I am very often asked as a composer 'How do you work?' and my stock answer is 'In very strange ways.' This is not to be evasive or to seem vague but to be honest. A five minute song may take months of deliberation and rewriting while a full section of an orchestral work can find itself finished in an hour. There is just no set process to composition and it very rarely happens when you want it to. Some of my best work has occurred in my truck, pulled over to the side of the road, singing into a tape recorder."

Jonathan Cole died of AIDS in Omaha, Nebraska at the age of 42 on July 27, 1999.

—Nurit Tilles

WORKS:

MUSICAL THEATRE

Alice: A Curious Adventure (1990)
A musical comedy for children, based on Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Book and Lyrics by Susan Baer Beck
Music by Jonathan D. Cole
Produced by Nebraska Theatre Caravan (1990-1991)
Best New Script, Omaha Theatre Arts Guild (1991)

Take the Sky (1993)
A musical tribute to the Wright Brothers
Book and Lyrics by Susan Collins
Music by Jonathan D. Cole
Produced by Nebraska Theatre Caravan (1993)

Conestoga Stories (1989)
A musical for children
Book and Lyrics by Susan Baer Beck
Music by Jonathan D. Cole
Produced by Nebraska Theatre Caravan
Published by Anchorage Press (1995)
Finalist, National Youth Theatre Playwrighting Competition (1990)

Ichabod (1994?)
A new musical adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
Book and Lyrics by Charles Jones
Music by Jonathan D. Cole
Produced by Nebraska Theatre Caravan (1994?)
Published by Anchorage Press (1996)

Frankenstein (orchestral score) (1995)
Produced by The Omaha Playhouse (1995)

The Glory Years (1995)
Musical based on an original play by Charles Jones about the Knights of Ak-sar-ben, a private charitable society founded in Nebraska at the turn of the century
Music by Jonathan D. Cole
Produced at The Omaha Playhouse (1995)

Spa (A Very Hot Musical)
Musical comedy, written during his years in New York

Julius Caesar (orchestral score) (1989)
Produced by The Omaha Playhouse as part of the International Festival Of Theatre (1990?)

Macbeth (orchestral score) (1992)
Produced by The Nebraska Shakespeare Festival at University of Nebraska, Omaha for Shakespeare On The Green (1992)

My Antonia (incidental music) (1994)
Based on the novel by Willa Cather, adapted by Charles Jones
Music by Jonathan D. Cole
Produced by The Omaha Playhouse (1994)

CHORAL

An Anthem Trilogy
    Be Strong! (texts: Malthie Davenport Babcock, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
    Credo (text: Frederick Gilbert)
    Stand! (text: Jonathan D. Cole)
for: SATB chorus, piano, brass sextet (2 trumpets, 2 horns, trombone, tuba), 2 percussionists
date: 1997?
note: Last work. Commissioned by the River City Mixed Chorus and Harmony: A Colorado Chorale. Funded in part by the commission matching grant program of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses.
premiere: River City Mixed Chorus, John Bennett, director,Witherspoon Concert Hall at Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE 6/14/97
source (archival recording): Yelton Rhodes Music

Hold Strong Together (from Ye Shall Come Out With Joy!)
for: Gospel soprano solo, SATB chorus and piano
date: ca. 1992
duration: 6:00
text: Susan Baer
published: Yelton Rhodes Music YR3701
premiere: Kathy Tyree, soprano soloist, River City Mixed Chorus, Jonathan Cole and John Bennett, co-directors, Omaha, NE
performed: River City Mixed Chorus, GALA Festival, Denver, CO 1992
recorded (archival): GALA Festival, Denver, CO 1992

Love Song (from Ye Shall Come Out With Joy!)
for: TTBB, piano, chimes, timpani
date: 1994
duration: 5:30
text: by the composer
published: Yelton Rhodes Music YR3700.4, YR3700.4X

Lullaby (from Ye Shall Come Out With Joy!)
for: SSAA chorus, mezzo-soprano soloist, chimes, piano
date: 1994
duration: 5:00
text: by the composer
published: Yelton Rhodes Music YR3700.2, YR3700.2X

Ye Shall Come Out (from Ye Shall Come Out With Joy!)
for: SATB chorus, mezzo-soprano soloist, horn, percussion, piano
date: 1994
text: based on Isaiah 55:12
published: Yelton Rhodes Music YR3700.5

Ye Shall Come Out With Joy!
Part One: Dream 1983
Part Two: Lullaby
Part Three: Self Help
Part Four: Love Song
Part Five: The Promise (Ye Shall Come Out)
for: SATB chorus, mezzo-soprano and baritone soloists, horn, percussion, piano
date: 1994
duration: 23:00
text: by the composer; "The Promise" based on Isaiah 55:12
note: Commissioned by The River City Mixed Chorus for its 10th anniversary Gay Pride Concert. Hold Strong Together, Love Song, Lullaby and Ye Shall Come Out also published separately (see listings above).
premiere: River City Mixed Chorus with Dianne Jones, mezzo-soprano, Dan Adams, baritone, Bill Sprague, horn, Brent-Alan Huffman, piano, Dan Maca and John Myre, percussion
published: Yelton Rhodes Music YR3700
source: UCLA; University of Georgia; Duke University: other libraries

Whipme Houstud: Three Pieces in the Diva Tradition
for: TTBB
date: ?
text: ?
note: Whereabouts of manuscript unknown. Mentioned in a 1996 letter to Roger Bourland, founder of Yelton Rhodes Music: Cole calls them "pop pieces" and refers to sending Bourland a solo demo tape (himself singing). "I may exchange the last one for a piece I also wrote years ago called Big Big Boy because I'm actually quite fond of Go For Change and am not sure it fits with the other two." Susan Baer Collins notes that Go For Change became the title song of Take the Sky (see Musical Theatre, above).

ARRANGEMENTS

[title unknown—medley of Cris Williamson songs]
for: SSAA
lyrics: Cris Williamson
performed: River City Mixed Chorus, Jonathan Cole and John Bennett, co-directors
source: River City Mixed Chorus music library

[title unknown—arrangement of "Goodbye My Friend" by Karla Bonoff with "Farther Along" (traditional mountain hymn)]
for: SSAA
note: Mentioned in correspondence with Roger Bourland. Whereabouts of manuscript unknown.

UNCOMPLETED WORKS:
Unknown

WRITINGS:
Unpublished poems (whereabouts of manuscripts unknown).

DISCOGRAPHY:
Unknown

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• "'Alice' Provides Rollicking Fun for Audience" by Jim Delmont, Sunday World-Herald, January 20, 1991.
• "'Sky' Tells Story of Flight" by Jim Minge, World-Herald (date unknown).

PERFORMING RIGHTS AFFILIATION:
ASCAP

RESOURCES:
Anchorage Press Plays
Marilee Miller, Publisher
PO Box 2901
Louisville, KY 40201-2901
Tel: (502) 583-2288
Fax: (502) 583-2281
applays@bellsouth.net

Yelton Rhodes Music
1717 N. Ogden Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90046-2129
1-888-4yrmusic
www.yrmusic.com

MUSICAL EXECUTOR:
Unknown

OTHER CONTACTS:
Susan Baer Collins (writer/collaborator and friend)
Associate Director, Omaha Playhouse
6915 Cass Street
Omaha, NE 68132
(402) 553 4890 ext. 158 (office)
scollins@omahaplayhouse.com
(402) 558-1953 (home)
susanjbaer@cox.net

Jim Boggess (conductor and friend)
3549 N. 47th Avenue
Omaha, NE 68104
(402) 453-7688
ricknjim@aol.com

Toni Pastory
(River City Mixed Chorus former member and friend)
629 South 50th Avenue
Omaha, NE 68106
tpastory@cox.net

Peggy Ryan
(River City Mixed Chorus member and friend)
4337 Cass Street
Omaha, NE 68131
pryanangel@cox.net