Jonathan Sokol (b. 1981) was introduced to music at a young age. A native of Cleveland, Ohio and the son of two music educators, he began piano study at age six, trombone at nine, and added composition during high school. He continued his compositional studies at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, where he received his Bachelor of Music Degree and was a student of the College's composer-in-residence, Loris Chobanian. With composition and trombone performance equally divided, he later made time to study the organ, the violin and several early music instruments.

Following Baldwin-Wallace, Sokol studied with Michael Gandolfi at New England Conservatory, where he received his Masters degree with Honors and Distinction in Performance, and with Sydney Hodkinson at the Aspen Music Festival. He currently lives in Bloomington, Indiana as a Doctoral Fellow and Associate Instructor at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, where he has studied with Sven-David Sandström, Michael Gandolfi, Claude Baker, and P. Q. Phan.

Continuing his interest in trombone performance, Sokol has appeared at numerous venues in the greater Cleveland, Chicago, Boston and Bloomington areas, with such groups as the Socially Awkward Composers (as the guest composer/performer) the Leftovers, and the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra. He has recently completed his Doctoral Minor in trombone with Carl Lenthe.

Sokol's music has been performed by ensembles and soloists throughout the country, including the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project; and he has received international performances in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and Brazil.

Sokol has been the recipient of an ASCAP Honorable Mention (2006); has received a Susan and Ford Schumann Scholarship for the Aspen Music Festival and School (2007); has won the 8th annual NEC/BMOP ConNECtion competition (2005); has won the Indiana University Kuttner String Quartet composition competition (2007); was a winning participant in the Indiana University / Bloomington Schools Kids Compose! project (2008); has been named a Finalist in the 2nd International Frank Ticheli Composition Contest (2009); has most recently been named the winner of the 2nd annual MAYO Composition Contest (2010); and has most recently been named a recipient of an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award (2010).

A commission from the Zzyzx Saxophone Quartet, Gradient : Contour, has just been completed. New and continuing projects include a piece entitled Gradient : Waves for Chamber Orchestra (Dissertation) and a collaboration with Video Artist Julie Rooney that explores the transience, impermanence and dissolution of memory and environment.