Originally from Fairfax, Iowa, Jon Snell is an award-winning pianist and composer based in New York City.
As a performer, Snell works across New York’s jazz, theatre, and contemporary music scenes as a pianist, keyboardist, music director, and conductor. His theatre credits include Titaníque on Broadway at the St. James Theatre, where he worked as a substitute keyboardist, as well as the Off-Broadway production at the Daryl Roth Theatre, where he worked as a substitute conductor/keyboardist and rehearsal pianist. He has also toured regionally with Victor Treviño Jr., an Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist World Champion. As a studio musician, Snell has been featured on recordings by Broadway artist Kennedy Caughell and jazz artist Ethan Helm, among other original projects.
As a composer, Snell has written, arranged, and orchestrated music for professional performers and ensembles ranging from big band and concert band to symphony and studio orchestra. A recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award, he has served as co-producer and arranger-orchestrator for several large-scale musical productions commissioned by the Manhattan School of Music, encompassing a range of instrumental ensembles and up to 175 performers. He has also been commissioned by Teachers College, Columbia University and the Cedar Rapids Municipal Band. In the recording studio, Snell has arranged, orchestrated, and conducted music for a 30-piece studio orchestra at Avatar Studios.
In film, Snell’s piano playing and musical arrangements are featured in the Japanese short Wandering Memories, which received the Gold Remi Award at WorldFest-Houston and Best Foreign Short at the Arizona International Film Festival.
Snell studied jazz and classical piano at the University of Northern Iowa, graduating magna cum laude and receiving the Purple and Old Gold Award for Conspicuous Achievement in Music. He later earned a Master of Music in Jazz Piano on scholarship from the Manhattan School of Music, where he received the William H. Borden Award for Outstanding Achievement in Jazz. Following his graduate studies, he was invited to join the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Jazz Faculty, where he taught jazz piano, theory, ear training, and keyboard harmony and directed small ensembles for seven years.
