Jonathan Øverby, originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the United States, began his career in radio at WAUK as a student sports play-by-play announcer at Rufus King High School in Milwaukee.
As a 1973 Ford Foundation Academic Scholarship recipient, Øverby attended San Francisco State University, where he completed the bulk of his formal undergraduate musical training in voice and choral conducting. In 1980 after several life-changing experiences, he returned to Wisconsin, where he performed extensively throughout the Badgerland, the U.S., and Europe with recitals in Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and Poland. In time he reconnected with his passion for education.
Øverby, an internationally recognized ethnomusicologist, and scholar, has traveled extensively with multiple independent research and tour group-led excursions to Scotland, Tanzania, Cuba, Ghana, Canada, Peru, India, the Caribbean, and Japan.
He was one of nine internationally selected participants to attend the Calvin College Afro-Christian Worship and Social Transformation Workshop which brought scholars and practitioners of Afro-Christian worship from across the African Diaspora for a week of intense discussion, study, and practice. In brief, the workshop explored how Afro-Christian worship reflects Afro-culture and how Afro-Christian worship could serve as a vehicle for spiritual and social transformation. July - 17 – 23, 2004.
The Cuban Institute of Music in Havana, Cuba, invited him ro join other international scholars to attend the country's 2020 annual El Institutio Cubano de la Musica conference. The Canadian Annual Folk Music Awards organization also invited Øverby to attend their 2020 annual event in Prince Edward Island (both events were postponed due to the Covid Pandemic).
Øverby holds that "people might better understand the human condition through varied traditions of sacred world music, which may have the potential for building bridges between diverse groups while illuminating and celebrating cultural diversity and the inclusion of marginalized groups."
SERVICE and EXPERIENCE
Executive Director | 01/1994 - Current Africasong Communications - Madison, WI
Founding director of Africasong Communications, a not-for-profit statewide agency dedicated to education, music productions, and community service. In addition, he is the executive producer and director of Wisconsin's Official Annual State "Tribute & Ceremony" honoring The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the oldest M.L.K. state ceremony in the nation now in its 42nd year.
Conductor/Artistic Director | 01/2019 - Current - Founded and conducts the Columbus Chamber Choir in Columbus, Wisconsin.
February of 2021, Overby launched "The Forward Together As One," a podcast centering on conversations shaped to listen, learn, and lead on how together we can make Wisconsin a better to live for all.
Distinguished Broadcaster EXECUTIVE Producer and Host | 01/1994 - Current Wisconsin Public Radio - Madison, WI
1994-1996 produced and hosted the 7-9 am Sunday morning talk show “The Road to Higher Ground Road" on the Ideas Network of Wisconsin Public Radio.
1996-2007 produced hosted Saturday 7-9 pm evening variety show "The Road to Higher Ground with Jonathan Øverby"
September 9, 2007, created what would become a new music program on Wisconsin Public Radio centered on world music - continues to serve as host and executive producer of the current four-hour broadcast heard weekly on the NPR News and Music Network of Wisconsin Public Radio - "The Road to Higher Ground with Jonathan Øverby.” - broadcast streamed Saturdays 5 p.m. Central on WPR's NPR News & Music Network at wpr.org and at 7 p.m. on 90.7 in Milwaukee.
The musical theme and choral work that opens each broadcast edition was composed and written by Øverby and features the Lighthouse Chambers Singers, a choral ensemble he founded and conducted from 1993-2010.
2011 Øverby created "The Odyssey Series" for Wisconsin Public Radio which he produces and narrates on the NPR News and Music Network of WPR, Saturdays at 4 pm Central Time. Each audio vignette explores "a diverse form of international music and its potential to reduce human hatred for those who are 'different' and, to create a greater understanding of those near and far as a pathway to celebrating and edifying not only our differences but our commonalities as well."
Øverby is the first African American in the history of Wisconsin Public Radio to create and produce a music program and one of only a few to produce and host his own radio program on both the Ideas Network and the Music Network Of WPR.
Øverby composed the "Higher Ground" theme song in 1976 while serving as music director at the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard chapel in San Francisco, CA, while he was yet a music student at San Francisco State University. The choral work, originally written for a children's chorus opens each world music broadcast and features the Lighthouse Chamber Singers.
Director of Music | 01/1984 - 01/1987 Pres House - UW Madison - Madison , WI
Producer Host | 01/1984 - 01/2007 W.O.R.T. Radio - Madison, WI
Created and managed production for Gospel Music Program and projects throughout Wisconsin.
Artist in Residence | 01/1984 - 01/1987 Edgewood College - Madison , WI
Associate Director - in the music department — conducting both the College Choral and the Community Choir. Produced choral festivals and special music events.
Vice-Chair | 01/1991 - 01/2003 Wisconsin Arts Board - Madison, WI - Appointed by Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. Served two terms as Vice-chair.
Conductor | 01/1993 - 01/2010 Africasong Communications - Madison, WI
Founded and conducted the Lighthouse Chambers Singers and from 2000-2010, led the big band, Highway To Heaven.
Doctoral Faculty | 01/2013 - 01/2017 Edgewood College - Madison, WI - Instructed postgraduate students in Administrative Leadership In Higher Education.
Faculty | 01/2014 - 01/2016 UW-Waukesha - Waukesha, WI - 2014-2016 World Music Instructor - Tour Leader
Post-Doctoral Fellow | 01/2013 - 01/2018 Edgewood College - Madison, WI
Became the first Post-Doctoral Fellow in the nearly 150-year history of Edgewood College. His four-year Joseph E. Schmiedicke Fellowship advanced his field research linked to "sacred world music and its potential to create a greater understand of those who are different as a means of reducing human hatred."
Host - executive Producer| 2021-Current Forward Together Forum Podcast
Chabot College - Hayward, CA | Associate of Arts Administrative Arts, 06/1971
Edgewood College - Madison, WI | Bachelor of Science Vocal Music - Choral Conducting, 06/2007
Edgewood College - Madison, WI | Master of Arts Religious Studies, 2009
Edgewood College - Madison, WI | Doctor Of Education - Administrative Leadership In Higher Education, Dissertation centered on Sacred World Music and its potential power to create a greater understanding between diverse groups, 08/2011
Awards and Honors
October 21, 2005, NAACP Service Award, Madison, Wisconsin Branch for "steadfast and exemplary volunteer efforts serving the Greater Madison Community."
December 1, 2012, named Past Master, Capitol City Prince Hall Masonic Lodge No. 2, Madison, Wisconsin.
July 1, 2013, University of Wisconsin Extension Chancellor Ray Cross conferred on Øverby the prefix title of "Distinguished" Wisconsin Public Radio Broadcaster for his efforts as a radio producer, host, and his community service statewide.
Chief | 01/2015 - Current Warmeru Tribe - Arusha, Tanzania, Africa
Elevated to Chief in the Warmeru Tribe, Arusha, Tanzania.
September 2016, named an Associate Minister, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Madison, WI.
2016 Rufus King High School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, presented him with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.
September 22, 2016, U.W. Colleges and UW-Extension Chancellor Cathy Sandeen, presented Dr. Øverby with the "Wisconsin Idea" Award” for his "outstanding contributions to service and education to society, and the quality of life in Wisconsin, the nation, and the world."
January 2022, Nominated for the Wisconsin Broadcaster's Hall of Fame.
April 2022, Smithsonian Journeys invited him to serve as an "Expert Lecturer" for multiple journeys in 2022-23.
May 2022 Inducted into Folk Alliance International Folk DJ Hall of Fame.
2022-23 Øverby will lead travel excursions to Paris, Scotland, and Cuba.