Jonathan Mitchell's Bio

Jonathan Mitchell is a freelance radio producer, composer, and sound artist. A native of Springfield, Illinois, he began working with recorded media as a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied experimental composition with Scott Wyatt, Salvatore Martirano, and William Brooks, among others. He graduated with a BM in music composition in 1993, after which he attended graduate studies in composition at Mills College in Oakland, California. At Mills, Jonathan continued to study unusual approaches to using the recording studio as a musical instrument, producing and composing the radio drama, "The Trouble with Key of G", and studying composition with Alvin Curran.

Shortly after completing his coursework, Mitchell was hired as the creative director of "Beyond Computers", a high-tech news and information program distributed by PRI, for which he also composed the theme music. He went on to produce freelance work as both a feature reporter for public radio and as a composer. Most notably, Jonathan produced a segment in collaboration with Jay Allison for the "Lost and Found Sound" series, and he composed a set of commercial jingles heard within the popular computer game "The Sims". He then became the senior producer of "Loose Leaf Book Company", a nationally syndicated public radio program for adults about books for kids, produced by Ben Manilla Productions. The series went on to win several awards, including the NFCB's Silver Reel Award for National Music/Entertainment series in 2001 and 2002.

In the fall of 2002, Jonathan Mitchell was the winner in both categories of the PRPD's "Iron Chef" Award, presented at the PRPD conference in Cincinnati. The awards focused on approaching station breaks with a fresh and creative style. Currently, Jonathan is a regular contributor to PRI's "Studio 360". His most recent radio project is "Shades of Gray", an hour long audio documentary about abortion in America, distributed by PRI. The documentary was co-produced with Ahri Birnbaum, and features an original music score.

Jonathan Mitchell currently lives in Oakland, California, where he regularly hosts and organizes Bay Area Radio Salons, lively gatherings where radio producers can meet and discuss their projects with one another.

Audio
  Superdiamond [segment] (03.28). Download: MP3 [3.3mb]