BIOGRAPHY
Jon Michael Iverson is a multifaceted musician based in Minneapolis, where he has spent twenty years at MacPhail Center for Music, one of the largest community music schools in the country. He currently serves as Director of Instrumental and Vocal Instruction, overseeing about 115 faculty who teach close to 3,500 students. He holds a Doctor of Education in Leadership from the University of St. Thomas; his dissertation examined how a community music school survives, and even thrives, through decades of institutional change.
Iverson earned his Master of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, where he studied piano pedagogy with Phyllis Alpert Lehrer, Ingrid Jacobson Clarfield, Dr. James Goldsworthy, and Jean Stackhouse. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of St. Thomas, studying piano with Katherine Faricy and theory, composition, and orchestration with Dr. James Callahan. He also studied composition with Dr. William Banfield, jazz with Laura Caviani, and electronic music production with Roger Dumas.
Iverson began teaching at the age of fourteen. At Westminster, he won first prize in the graduate piano competition, received a teaching position at the Westminster Conservatory, and completed an intensive internship co-teaching with Ingrid Jacobson Clarfield. Today he teaches at MacPhail, working with students of all ages, abilities, and styles, from classical repertoire to jazz, pop, and coaching pianist-singers, and his students have regularly been selected for MacPhail’s Honors Recitals. The Iverson Inspirational Merit Scholarship, which he co-founded with his student Dr. Richard King, supports students who use music to help another person heal, cope, or mend.
As a pianist, Iverson has performed regularly as a soloist, accompanist, and chamber musician throughout the Twin Cities, including many appearances on MacPhail’s Spotlight Series and faculty concerts, and in two-piano repertoire with his wife, pianist E. Pınar Başgöze. He has been heard with local Minnesota orchestras in Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto (“Emperor”) and Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat. His private piano teachers have included Phyllis Alpert Lehrer, J.J. Penna, Katherine Faricy, Kenneth Huber, and Rich Clausen, and he has performed in master classes with distinguished pianists and teachers including Seymour Bernstein and Paul Sheftel.
At MacPhail, Iverson has also founded a number of programs, among them the MacPhail Chamber Choir, created in partnership with the Minnesota Chorale; the Varsity Ensembles; Harmonix a cappella ensemble; and the Adult Strings Retreat on Madeline Island. In addition to his doctorate, he has completed a Mini-MBA for Nonprofit Organizations through the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business, a fundraising certificate, and the Diversity Leadership Series of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. Earlier in his career he was an active adjudicator for competitions, contests, and festivals and gave dozens of clinics and workshops throughout Minnesota.
In recent years, Iverson’s creative work has expanded to include human-directed, AI-assisted music. For him, it is a continuation of a lifelong musical path, not a departure from it. He holds this work to the same standards he has always held himself to – warmth, honesty, craft, and respect for the musicians and traditions it draws from – and he is open about how it is made. His albums, including Start Here: An Introduction to AI Music and The Young Person’s Guide to AI Music, are available at jonmichaeliverson.net. The thread running through all of his work is a simple belief: that music is one of the most important things in human life, and that it deserves to be treated that way.
He lives in South Minneapolis with his wife and their two sons. When he is not at the piano, you are likely to find him traveling or tending the grill.