Jonathon Jie Hong Yang is an Australian composer of film, orchestral, chamber, and solo instrumental music and has had his works played by orchestras in the Perth Concert Hall, and played on radio including the ABC Radio National. He works extensively with sample libraries, and regularly collaborates with musicians to have original works performed live. Jonathon is also an orchestral arranger and has arranged for a number of orchestras around Australia.
Early in high school, Jonathon developed a strong interest for the music of film, television and games, which lead him to pursue study in music composition at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts. Jonathon graduated in 2020 with Bachelor of Music Honours First Class.
Jonathon recently composed the track featured in the 1 year Anniversary celebration promotional videos as well as in game for the Fullmetal Alchemist Mobile game. (Click here to hear the track in game.)
In 2022, Jonathon composed music for Barking Gecko Theatre's adaption of Shaun Tan's award winning book Cicada.
Jonathon was commissioned by Churchlands Senior High School to compose a new 5 min work for orchestra and massed choir. The piece, To the Greatest Heights was premiered at the Perth Concert Hall in 2022.
In 2021, Jonathon was awarded the award for Excellence in Composition by the WA Screen Academy for his work on three of the WASA short films (Drafted, Linger, and I am Ghost). For 2021, Jonathon composed original music for a total of 7 short films, and his first feature film.
In 2020, Jonathon was given the opportunity to compose a work that featured all corners of the WAAPA Classical Music course which resulted in an orchestral piece that included a full choir, saxophone section, and classical guitars. This piece, Brave the Wave, featured 124 musicians, with every individual part recorded on the musicians phones while in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. All the audio was edited, mixed, and mastered by Jonathon and then combined together to assemble a virtual orchestral performance. The recorded video was edited together and synchronise by Joey Eng. The work has been featured on ABC Classic Facebook page, Limelight Magazine Facebook page, Perth is Ok website, Mamamia, and Musicfeed.
Brave the Wave was performed by live in concert on two seperate occasions in 2021 at the Perth Concert Hall. First by the WAAPA Symphony Orchestra, and then by the Combined Anglican School Commission Orchestra.
Other works performed in the concert hall include his piece SWE (Symphonic Wind Ensemble) Overture premiered by the WAAPA Symphonic Wind Ensemble as part of their 2020 Halloween SPOOKTACULAR Concert.
Jonathon has been interviewed by Andrew Ford on the ABC The Music Show on ABC Radio National for his original composition 'Brave the Wave'. To hear the interview, click here. The work was also discussed in an article on the Guardian. (Click here to watch the Brave the Wave video.)
At the beginning of 2019, Jonathon was given the amazing opportunity to have his work Cartographer's Expedition (2017) performed by the Perth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jessica Gethin, at the Romance on the Green concert in Rockingham, Western Australia. Later that year, Jonathon had his piece Leap of Faith (2019), as well his arrangement for The Horses, performed by WAAPA in collaboration in PSO. His arrangement for The Horses was then performed again by PSO at the City of Kwinana Symphony Spectacular concert.
In 2018, Jonathon won the 2018 WAAPA Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition with his entry, Uncharted Valley, a 5 min piece heavily inspired by the visuals and imagery from the critically acclaimed video game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The work was performed by the WAAPA Faith Court Orchestra and conducted by the Perth Symphony Orchestra musical director Jessica Gethin. (Click here to listen to a recording of Uncharted Valley.)