Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jonathan Yudkin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jonathan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I began learning my craft in public school,recognizing an attraction and enjoyment of creating music and being involved in extra curricular activities that gave me the chance to implement what I learned in the classroom.
The learning process is never over, you absorb as much music and information as is comfortable for you at your pace. Speeding up intake should be driven by desire or a work necessity.
Learning as much as possible about your craft is essential,the more you know the more you see,the more music you can draw from and illuminate your path forward.
There are no obstacles to learning, especially now with internet assistance.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

OK,short bio here.

Jonathan Yudkin is a recording studio musician, film composer, and an ACM, CMA and Grammy award winning and nominated instrumentalist specializing in all string instruments, violin/fiddle, cello, mandolins, guitars, banjo, dobro, bass etc., with many writing and producing credits.

Yudkin studied music in Philadelphia at Temple and Rutgers Universities before leading the house band at the Lonestar Café in New York City 1979-1981. He relocated to Nashville in 1981 to begin his first 20 year adventure of roadwork and studio recording with Leon Russell, Dickie Betts, Ed Bruce, Johnny Lee, John Hartford, Robert Earl Keen, Kathy Mattea, Doug Dillard, and many more.
He left the road in 1996 to concentrate primarily on studio recording and has since provided award-winning tracks for Taylor Swift (including Taylor’s version), Bon Jovi, Megadeth, Keith Urban, Shania,Big and Rich, Reba, Jars Of Clay, Neil Diamond,Carrie Underwood,Kenny Loggins, Steven Tyler, Tom Waits,Kelly Clarkson, Lady A, Pink, and Cher to name a few. He is also currently working in the Latin Music world doing live, recording and producing work with Ricardo Arjona, Alfredo Olivas, Guaynaa and Maluma (baby) as well as continuing to produce and arrange for the #1 charting Bluegrass artist Marty Falle.

In addition,Yudkin provides his one-man orchestral recording service composing, arranging, performing and producing scores for feature length film, TV and commercials. All of the instruments used -violin,viola,cello,bass-are recorded one at a time with the song in real time. There are no shortcuts.
Current film titles include Born Wild, Dug Up and Common Threads as well as films for Hallmark including the Graceland series,A Nashville Christmas Carol and One December Night.

He is a 43 year member of AFM #257 currently serving on the executive board, is a graduate of Leadership Music class of 2009, is a mentor for Belmont grad students and has been honored as ACM fiddle player of the year and Music Row Magazines top 10 All-Stars.
Yudkin is an avid scuba diver, book lover, chef and Eagle Scout.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

By 2015 I had made a comfortable place for myself in the Nashville Country Music recording industry and could have just taken in all studio clients every day from then on. But for me,the music had changed. When we could no longer sell our product because of piracy and theft the music conformed to a new, safe predictable direction which no longer championed the beautiful and masterful songs and attitudes that made Country Music so attractive to me in the 80’s,90’s and 2000’s. It became less and less of a challenge. In 2015 I was recording with Ricardo Arjona and we made a great musical connection. I went from recording for him to arranging and producing for him as well. When he asked me to join his upcoming Circo Solidad world tour as the multi-instrumentista Alchimista I was unsure if I could rise to the occasion. Besides the physical challenges of worldwide travel there was the fact that everything is in Spanish, his music could at any time draw for any of the Latin styles -Salsa,Tango,Cumbia,Mariachi,etc.- as well as the clave rhythms. The learning curve was as daunting as the destinations previously unknown to me except in books and videos. But not only was it a chance to see places in the world that I would never see on my own, it was a challenge to master the music and take it a step further by adding the element and influence of my music to theirs.To create a new job description and do it better than anyone else ever will,and, to represent my country in the best possible way. So I met the challenge.
And boy am I glad I did.
And I will also mention that during the Covid Pandemic many of my musician friends and I were concerned about our lack of live performance and the negative effect that it could have so we started ‘The Jazz Drive In’ where we set up outside on a large back porch in an alleyway on Music Row here in Nashville with distancing and masks and people could drive up like a drive in movie and listen from the safety of their cars. That evolved to inside the studio with isolation booths,distance and masks and we created ‘The Lifeboat’ show live on FB every Sunday night for 54 episodes until business opened back up. And we were ready.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

During my time working with producer Mutt Lang I really learned how to recognize what is the best,whether it’s the song,the arrangement,the quality of recording or the production. And once you’ve witnessed and experienced that awakening there is no going back.
My goal is, and always will be, to recognize and provide the best quality music imaginable in that moment and for that purpose no matter what the genre or style. And it makes me feel really good.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jonathanyudkin.com
• Instagram: @jonathanyudkin
• Facebook: Jonathan Yudkin
• Linkedin: jonathan yudkin
• Youtube: Jonathan Yudkin