Jonathan Sturm

Associate Professor of Music

Jonathan Sturm is known in Iowa as the concertmaster of the Des Moines Symphony, violist of the nationally acclaimed Ames Piano Quartet, and Associate Professor of Music History at Iowa State University. A student of the renowned violin teacher Josef Gingold, Dr. Sturm has been featured as a soloist with the Des Moines Symphony and most of the orchestras in Central Iowa. He has appeared as a concerto soloist and a recitalist on both the East and West Coasts and has been the guest violist on numerous chamber music concerts, including a concert with the celebrated Cassatt Quartet in a performance of Brahms' String Quintet in G Major. In the summer of 2004 he traveled to Tirana, Albania, to present a concert and teach a week of master classes as a part of the European String Teacher Association (Albania chapter) annual convention.

With the Ames Piano Quartet, he has toured over twenty states, in cities including Los Angeles, Seattle, New Orleans, Memphis, Las Vegas, Corpus Christie, Tallahassee, and Des Moines; he has toured to Havana, Cuba to present 3 concerts and a week of master classes; he has recorded three compact discs: one released in 2000 of Russian piano quartets, one-released in February 2005- of American Piano Quartets, and one to be released in fall of 2005 of Czech piano quartets; and he has performed for the nationally syndicated radio show Saint Paul Sunday.

As a pedagogue, Dr. Sturm is in demand for his master classes as well as for his clinics dealing with topics such as "Easing Performance Anxiety," "Assessment in the Private Studio Lesson," and "Career Development and Promotion for Young Musicians." He has published articles on violin pedagogy in journals such as American String Teacher and American Music Teacher, and has given speeches and clinics at national conventions for ASTA and Mu Phi Epsilon. His students have won regional competitions and auditions for the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, and have graduated to attend major music schools in the United States. For the past four years Jonathan Sturm has also taught music history courses to the music majors at Iowa State University.

Jonathan has played the violin for thirty-seven years and the viola for fourteen years and frequently plays both on a recital program. His musical education came from Oberlin Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, and Indiana University. His violin is by the Italian maker Pressenda from 1825, and his viola was made by Michael Darnton of Chicago in 1992.