Jonathan Van Selow

Jonathan’s musical journey with piano, specifically, began with an early computer-based piano training system in the 1990s, developed in concert with Roy Bogas, an internationally-recognized concert pianist, and quickly grew into more than a decade of serious classical study under skilled teachers. Jonathan’s training emphasized reading, technique, memorization, performance, and a broad classical repertoire.

Participating regularly in National Guild piano auditions and Honors Recitals, he performed Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca in an Honors Recital just over four years after beginning lessons.

His later studies included advanced works by Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev, including the final movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, and Rachmaninoff’s Preludes in C# and G Minor.

At one point encouraged toward a professional concert-pianist path, Jonathan ultimately chose another career while continuing to make music.

With over thirty years at the piano, Jonathan’s experience has expanded beyond classical performance to include accompaniment, ensemble playing, writing and recording original music, sound engineering, and publishing music as an independent recording artist. This unusually broad musical background gives him a perspective that reaches well beyond simply teaching students how to work through a method book.

Having now returned to his first passion, Jonathan teaches with the goal of preserving serious pianism for the next generation. His lessons combine strong reading skills, healthy technique, musical understanding, expressive playing, and carefully chosen repertoire, using different methods when needed rather than forcing every student through the same path. He aims to give Northern California families access to the kind of thorough, individualized musical training that can carry a student from the very first lesson into genuinely advanced playing.