RYAN HAGEN
News Assistant
Adjunct professor Brandon Louis Jones has undergone some dramatic shifts in his life, but since he was 13 years old there has been one constant — guitar.
Pepperdine hired Jones, the 2005 Outstanding Fine Arts Graduate, in June 2006. He began teaching guitar his freshman year of high school, when he taught members of his church in Wheaton, Ill.. Since then, he has released two albums and won multiple awards while continuing to teach.
“Teaching is a completely different kind of work, but it’s so rewarding to see students progress from week to week and year to year,” he said. “It’s great to know that you’ve been with them for that journey.”
Jones’ own journey unexpectedly took him across the country when he followed Christopher Parkening, his former teacher who now chairs the Christopher Parkening Chair in Classical Guitar, to Pepperdine.
“The first time I saw campus was when I came to orientation,” Jones said.
He had finished one year at Wheaton College, the religious school where his father taught and is provost, but in 2000, his life changed when he attended a concert by Parkening.
Jones attended several master classes taught by Parkening, whose music Jones said he grew up on.
He soon made an impression.
Parkening began teaching at Pepperdine in 2002 and offered Jones a scholarship to be his first private student. He said he never regretted the decision.
“Brandon is one of my finest students in over 30 years of teaching,” Parkening said. “His love for music and the guitar is remarkable and so is his teachability, technique and musical instincts.”
That transferred into excellent teaching ability, according to freshman Anastasios Comanescu, one of Parkening’s students who occasionally takes lessons from Jones.
“He’s been through Parkening’s program and knows exactly how things work,” Comanescu said. “And he also takes master’s classes at USC, where they have a completely different mentality. He’s amazing. He’s the man.”
Jones first picked up a guitar when his junior high school in Cambridge, England, where he lived for a year, offered free lessons.
“It was awkward at first, but I got into it pretty quick,” he said.
Jimi Hendrix and Pearl Jam dominated his play list at first, but at 18, Jones began attending classical guitar lessons.
“I grew up with Christopher Parkening’s records playing,” he said. “I always knew I’d make the switch. I just got more and more interested until it got to the point where I couldn’t wait any more.”
His skill at classical guitar soon began turning heads.
After only two years of classical guitar, he enrolled at Pepperdine, where Parkening said he improved his technique and musical quality while teaching others to do the same.
“Teaching has complemented my playing,” Jones said. “You really have to know the technique and how to articulate it, which solidifies it in my mind.”
Jones balances six hours of teaching each week at Pepperdine with private lessons and award-winning performances.
He won three prestigious competitions in 2005, according his official Web site: American String Teachers’ Association California State Solo Competition in San Diego, ASTA/Green Classical Guitar Competition in Los Angeles and the Pepperdine University Concerto Competition.
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which presents the Grammy Awards, also named him the top 2004 undergraduate.
He also often performs live, with his next performance coming April 6 at the University of Southern California Recital Hall.
02-01-2007
