Jonathan Øverby, originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the United States, began his career in radio as a student sports play-by-play announcer at Rufus King High School in Milwaukee. A recipient of a Ford Foundation Academic Scholarship, Jonathan attended San Francisco State University where he received his formal musical training in voice.
Upon returning to Wisconsin, Jonathan began performing extensively throughout Wisconsin, the U.S. and Europe with some recital tours in Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and Poland. For nearly two decades, he produced and hosted “The Best of Gospel with Jonny O.” on the W.O.R.T. Community Radio station in Madison. The program, which he created, still airs and retains its original title today.
Øverby served from 1984-87 as music director for Pres House Campus Ministry on the UW-Madison campus. From 1984-1987, he also served as an Edgewood College Artist In Residence in the music department - conducting both the College Choral and the Community Choir. In May of 1994, Jonathan joined Wisconsin Public Radio as a Sunday morning talk-show host on The Ideas Network of WPR. In 1996, he shifted to hosting and producing a live Saturday night variety show for WPR.
September 9, 2007, after just a few short weeks designing the concept for what would become a new music program on Wisconsin Public Radio, he began as host, and executive producer of the current four-hour broadcast heard weekly on the NPR News and Classical Music Network. His Saturday evening show "The Road To Higher Ground with Jonathan Overby" features world music with African roots and more.
The musical theme that opens each edition of the broadcast was composed and written by Jonathan, and features the Lighthouse Chambers Singers, a choral collective he conducted from 1993-2010. From 2000-2010, he also led the big band, Highway To Heaven.
From 1994-2004 he served two terms as Vice Chair of the Wisconsin Arts Board. Currently, he is the executive producer and director of Wisconsin’s Official Annual State "Tribute & Ceremony" honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the oldest such state ceremony in the nation now in its 39th year. Øverby, lyric baritone, lecturer, conductor, and ethnomusicologist holds several degrees including a Doctorate in Education from Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin.
July 1, 2013, University of Wisconsin Extension Chancellor Ray Cross conferred on Dr. Jonathan Øverby the prefix title of “Distinguished” Wisconsin Public Radio Broadcaster for his efforts as a radio producer, host and, for his community service statewide. September 1, 2013 - December 2017, he became a member of the doctoral faculty at Edgewood College, where he instructed postgraduate students in the field of Administrative Leadership In Higher Education. September of 2014, Øverby became the first Post-Doctoral Fellow in the 135-year history of Edgewood College. His four year Joseph E. Schmiedicke Fellowship was granted to advance his field research linked to "sacred world music and its potential to create greater understand of those who are different as a means of reducing human hatred."
From his recent 2017 journey to Northern India and Scotland, and Tibet in 2017, Overby's travels and field research have included independent excursions throughout the Caribbean, Japan, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Ghana, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Cuba, Peru, India, Scotland, and Morocco. These travel expeditions say, Øverby, "…inform how one 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 group. Such understanding may, in fact, reduce human hatred". His current developing research project centers on Sacred World Music.
September 22, 2016, UW 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." In 2015 Jonathan was elevated to the status of Chief in the Warmeru Tribe, Arusha, Tanzania. Jonathan, a member of the Society For Ethnomusicologists, continues to share his research, insights and travel discoveries on his radio broadcast through guest lectures, and presentations and speeches to community organizations and universities in Wisconsin and beyond. (updated 4.18)
Follow him on Twitter: @jloverbyWorMus1, Facebook @worldmus1, wpr.org/higherground, and africasong.org.
