About Jonathan L. Segal

                                               Composer, Lyricist and Author of SPACE VACATION

The product of two Juilliard students, one an aspiring Broadway-style composer and the other an opera singer, Jonathan has been playing the piano since he was five years old.

Jonathan has had an extensive and diverse creative career as a songwriter, pianist, singer, entertainer, and music educator. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy award in the “Outstanding Original Song” category for his songwriting on TV's “One Life To Live” and he has composed many theme songs for network TV shows including "Mighty Mouse, The New Adventures,” “Monday Night Football” and “Another World.”  His comic essay won WNYC’s “Commentary Slam”.

Jonathan is the author of “The Disharmonic Misadventures of David Stein”, which is a fun, far out musical mystery novel.  He has written a number of short stories, a novelized version of his musical SPACE VACATION, and a second novel about coming of age in New York City in the 1960s.

 Jonathan has been an on-camera pianist, music director and/or co-host for various TV comedy shows, including 52 episodes of “Afterdrive” starring Denis Leary. Mr. Segal also music-directed international education TV specials hosted by Tom Brokaw.

 Jonathan starred in the first national tour of Broadway’s “Pump Boys and Dinettes” with Nicolette Larson, Jonathan Edwards, and Henry Gross, and in “Song Of Singapore” in West Palm Beach with Loretta Swit. He has worked in various musical roles for industrial trade shows, played in Radio City Music Hall’s pit orchestra, taught the Von Trapp children their songs for the Broadway revival of “Sound Of Music,” served as musical director for Off-Broadway’s “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah,” and wrote the Off-Off-Broadway musical “Potholes On Parade” with Stan Sinberg. He has acted in film (John Sayle’s "Baby It’s You") and on radio in a play with Theodore Bikel. He has put out an album of his jazzy/funny songs (“The Books Jumped Up!”) and another of his country songs written with Christine Asero (“Unexpected Journey”). He has been a blue ribbon judge at the Emmy Awards, and appeared in Who’s Who in Entertainment and Who’s Who in Emerging American Leaders.

 As a pianist he has performed with a wide range of legendary performers (Chuck Berry, Dizzy Gillespie, Rosie O'Donnell, Oscar Brand, Mike Burstyn, Heather Headley, Ben Vereen, Simon Phillips, Marilyn Sokol, Tony Trischka, Catherine Russell, Will Lee, Rob Paparozzi, Tovah Feldshuh, among others),  He has entertained as a singer/pianist at approximately one-thousand private events (events for Broadway’s Tony Awards, the British Consulate, Al Gore, Mayor Bloomberg, The Discovery Channel, many major corporations), concertized ("The Great American Songbook on the Jazzy Side") and played jazz in Tokyo.

  Jonathan has been the middle school chorus director at Trevor Day School, the music specialist at Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan and PS6, and music director at Crane Lake Camp and for the Summer Stock musical theater camp at the JCC in Manhattan. He teaches piano privately and coaches singers.

Most importantly, if you say any word in the English language to him, Jonathan can probably tell it to you backwards instantly. Maybe.