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Award-winning music lessons, ensembles, and group classes for aspiring musicians of all ages and skill levels — children, teens, and adults.

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Morning & Full-Day Preschool programs with a full, child-centered curriculum of creative specials like music, science, drama, social and emotional learning, and more!

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Music Therapy Music Therapy

Established in 1966, our pioneering Center for Music Therapy (CMT) uses guided music experiences to help individuals meet life's challenges.

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Bop Stop Bop Stop

BOP STOP at The Music Settlement is Cleveland's premier listening room: an intimate, acoustically pristine performance venue with sweeping views of Lake Erie.

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Jonah Parzen-Johnson @ BOP STOP

June 1 from 8:00pm - 10:30pm

Jonah Parzen-Johnson @ BOP STOP

Jonah plays lofi experimental folk music for solo baritone saxophone and analog synthesizer. It all breathes together, as Jonah uses his feet to weave square and sawtooth waves into a surging base for folk inspired saxophone melodies, overblown multi phonics, vocalizations, and patiently developed circular breathing passages. Every element is performed and recorded at the same time, by one person, without any looping, overdubbing or recorded samples. “I want to make music that has texture, and depth, but most of all I want it to be direct and grounded. Performing completely live with all analog instruments, helps with that. For me, playing solo is all about being connected to the folks listening. I want you to feel like I’m looking you in the eye while I’m playing.”

A Chicago native, Jonah grew up immersed in the music community built around the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. “I remember dragging my parents to see the Art Ensemble of Chicago at Mandel Hall, when I was a teenager,” recalls Parzen-Johnson. “That show got me exploring musicians like Roscoe Mitchell, Fred Anderson, and Mwata Bowden, who were big proponents of solo music. I love their playing and writing, but their solo music always felt kind of distant.” Jonah stumbled upon Neil Young’s live at Massey Hall Concert later on. “Sometimes I just listen to the talking tracks in between the songs on that record. He makes those moments a central part of his performance. That’s something I wish people thought about more with experimental music. I want to be a story teller, and to make that happen I have to create an environment where people feel comfortable diving into the songs with me as I play them, an environment where they can understand the stories behind the compositions. That has to happen live, so touring is really important to me.”

Since the release of his debut album, Michiana, in 2012 Jonah has spent a lot of time on the road. He’s toured over twenty thousand miles across the US and back, playing in venues like The Stone and Zebulon in NYC, The Velvet Lounge in Chicago, The Royal Room in Seattle, and The Center for New Music in San Francisco and sharing bills with Celestial Shore, Landlady, Steve Lehman, and Brian Chase among others. “Touring is a really fun way to get my music out there, but its become about more than that for me. Musicians are around because they are pollinators. Hopping between towns, grabbing ideas that stick with them and sharing them with new people. I know folks everywhere are wondering how we’re going to fix these broken systems, but they don’t always want to talk about this stuff, it’s easier to just get nostalgic. I want to interrupt that cycle, get some conversations going, and help jump-start some solutions. That’s what I’ll be thinking about when I hit the road this spring.”


“A far-ranging solo performance.” The New York Times

"There’s good reason to keep your ears ready for the June release of Remember When Things Were Better Tomorrow." - PopMatters

“The ideal soundtrack to a scene in an offbeat indie where the two protagonists come together and have violent weird-sex followed by tender snuggles.” - Noisey (Vice Magazine)

“His unaccompanied playing captures the sentiment of an old Polaroid, long-ago happiness fading into the melancholy of memory.” Philadelphia City Paper

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Jonah Parzen-Johnson @ BOP STOP
Jonah Parzen-Johnson @ BOP STOP

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