Our classical music maven

Our classical music maven

What do Sherith Israel and Westminster Abbey have in common? Jonathan Dimmock, Sherith Israel’s music director. A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory, Yale School of Music and Yale Divinity School, Jonathan brings his vast experience and knowledge of sacred, classical and contemporary music to Congregation Sherith Israel.
 
Jonathan accompanies the congregation’s worship most Friday evenings and presents an organ Shabbat every quarter on the fifth Friday of the month. He is instrumental in coordinating the music for our High Holy Day worship. In addition, he directs the professional and lay choirs for the holidays and guides Koleynu, our volunteer choir, throughout the year.
 
Adept at all keyboard instruments and well known internationally, Jonathan plays with the San Francisco Symphony. He has recorded more than 40 CDs, including a set of Bach’s Complete Organ Works. He is on the San Francisco Symphony’s Grammy-Award winning CD of Mahler's Symphony VIII. Jonathan is the founder of five nonprofit organizations and is currently working on a project to use music in international conflict resolution.
 
Jonathan was honored to be the first American to hold the position of Organ Scholar of Westminster Abbey, regularly playing for Queen Elizabeth. Jonathan has held musical posts at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York, St. Mark’s Cathedral in Minneapolis and St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco. He was also the High Holy Day organist for Congregation Beth Am in Los Altos Hills for several years before joining his talent and passion to Sherith Israel’s rich history of beautiful music in 2006.
 
Westminster Abbey, not surprisingly, was the setting for Jonathan’s most anxious moment as a musician: The funeral of British Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman featured the Queen in attendance, Sir Laurence Olivier giving the sermon, and Prince Charles reading the lesson. BBC broadcast the entire event, live. “It was the most nervous I have ever been in my life,” Jonathan recalls. “I thought my heart was about to pound out of my chest.” Not much has rattled him since!

To hear his music or read more about Jonathan, visit his website.