Jon Lindhorst

Jon Lindhorst first began playing saxophone when he was 10 years old, and it has since become his life long passion. By a very early age, he was a regular fixture at various clinics and jazz camps in the Toronto and Ontario area, and soon began studying with Canadian jazz icon Mike Murley. At the age of 14 Jon formed his first jazz group and has made his living primarily as a musician ever since. In 2000 while still in high school, Jon toured France and Switzerland with the Hamilton All Star Jazz Band during which time he played a such renowned jazz festivals as Montreaux, Brienz, Vienne and Antibes. After graduating from high school, he received scholarships from both the IAJE and Yamaha, as well as an entrance scholarship to attend McGill University in Montreal. He was also invited to play in an all star youth nonet directed by Denny Christianson at the Ottawa Jazz Festival in the summer of 2001, where he opened for Sonny Rollins. In the fall of 2001 he began his Jazz Performance degree at McGill, and graduated in the fall of 2006.During his 5 years at McGill, he had the privilege of studying privately with such renowned musicians as Frank Lozano, Remi Buldoc, Chris McCann, Joel Miller, and Jan Jarcyzk. Though Jon learned much through his degree, he has always considered himself a perpetual student at the university of life, and has learned his richest lessons outside of an academic environment, and in the various bars and jazz clubs of montreal. While in second year of McGill, he began a collaboration with noted Montreal bass player Alex Bellegarde which lead them to various performances at the Montreal L’Off Festival du Jazz, and the Toronto Distillery Jazz Festival. Jon has also been a regular fixture at Alex’s weekly jam session at Nyks Bar and Grill.Jon also had the honour to play and learn from the great bass player George Mitchell, which lead to their duo recording of an hour long free jazz concert at Zeke’s Gallery. But most importantly during this period was Jon’s collaboration with Pat Reid of FeildTrip in the group Mobile Preid, which lead to numerous summers playing in the City Stages Street Festival in Charlottetown, PEI, and a tour to Holland where they performed at the world renowned North Sea Jazz Festival.Throughout the years, Jon has had the wonderful opportunity to meet and play with some of the greatest jazz musicians on the scene today, including Joe Lovano, Jimmy Heath, Gerry Bergonzi and George Garzone. Jon's latest project is the "bassless" trio TURTLEBOY with Ryan Butler on Guitar, and Adam Miller on drums.