DESCRIPTION:
Jonathan Garcia (Jon) was raised in the town of Aguada, Puerto Rico where he grew up being exposed to many professional salsa and merengue bands, including El Gran Combo, Jerry Rivera, La Maquina, etc. It was these interactions that set Jon on track for a long musical career.

At the age of 9, Jonathan came to the United States, where he had the opportunity to pick up the trumpet. By the time he got to High School, Jonathan had been studying classical music on the trumpet, trombone, baritone and tuba. Meanwhile, Jon was also playing trumpet with the Silver-City Jazz band in Meriden, CT. Jon also had the opportunity to learn to play guitar, bass, piano and drums while attending Church regularly.

A couple of years later Jon joined the Music Education program at The University of Connecticut (UConn) playing with groups like the UConn Marching Band (UCMB), the UConn pep band, Symphonic Band, Jazz Lab Band, and the Latin jazz Combo, traveling to places like Phoenix, AZ; Tampa, FL; Charlotte and Greensboro, NC; St. Louis, MO, and Toronto, Canada.

But it wasn't until Jon arrived at UConn that he had the opportunity to play Latin Music, starting with Mario Donate's Orquesta Pueblo (Hartford) and Orquesta Motivacion (Windsor, CT). These bands served as a stepping stone where he joined his teacher and mentor Ray Gonzalez in his GuakiPlena program in Hartford. Later on 2009 Jonathan joined Kultura Borikua (Springfield, MA), and La Perfecta Band (Holyoke, MA), where he can be found now playing concerts all over the New England region as a freelance trumpeter and pianist.