Finding his spotlight

As Jonathan Hobbs enters his fourth year as a musical theatre major, his sights are set on some of America’s most storied stages.

The University of Cincinnati student aspires to perform on Broadway or off, and hopes soon to be part of a Broadway National Tour. These dreams were crystallized by the scholarship support he has received from UC and its generous donors. That support has enabled him to pursue avenues of performance and community service without incurring any debt in UC's College-Conservatory of Music.

“I am so grateful for these scholarships, and the opportunities that have come with them,” Hobbs says. “CCM has allowed me and others to be in a space with other creatives who are as passionate about the arts as I am, and it has allowed us to tell stories and give back to the community. We work with some insanely talented teachers, and we wouldn’t have been able to do that without donor support.”

Hobbs grew up in Washington, D.C., with music in his ears and on his lips. In his words, he was “born and raised in the church and started singing at around age three.”

In elementary school, he performed in school productions of The Lion King. In middle school he performed in Hairspray, an experience that focused the trajectory of his life. “I remember after we closed out that show I was bawling my eyes out because that environment, those people, that experience was so special to me,” Hobbs says. “And from then on I knew that was something I wanted to keep in my life.”  

He began taking piano and drum lessons. He sang in multiple choirs and arrived at school at 7 a.m. in order to work with the music teacher. At the same time, he was also an accomplished basketball player who would eventually stand 6-foot-7. But deep down he knew his true passion was for the arts. “With basketball, I would never get the same feeling and the same fulfillment that I got when I came off that stage, telling a story with people who cared as much as I did about the story.”

The next step brought Hobbs to Duke Ellington School of the Arts for high school. The predominantly Black performing arts school lacked a musical theater program because of funding cuts, so the young baritone focused on classical voice, studying works ranging from Handel and Schumann to Florence Price and Gian Carlo Menotti.

Hobbs fell in love with CCM during his auditions for enrollment. “Everyone was so supportive,” he says.

Hobbs has become a seasoned performer whose CCM theatrical credits include ensemble/bass soloist in Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Hades/Minotaur in The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical; and ensemble/understudy in Hair and ensemble/understudy in Once on This Island. He has his own production company, and has spent countless hours introducing local children to the arts as a volunteer teacher and director of plays. From his professors, he has also taken a valuable, lifelong lesson: “Be part of the solution. Uplift the room.”

Because CCM is embedded within a large university, Hobbs has been able to benefit from the greater UC experience that students in other colleges have.

That includes minoring in psychology, which dovetails with his desire to continue introducing the arts to youth, either through his own studio someday or as a volunteer. Mentors at UC, he says, enabled him to believe that a career in the arts is something he could do. He wants to convey that message to others who may lack access to the arts.

“I want to open their eyes to the possibility that this might be something they love and could pursue,” Hobbs says. 

Featured image at top: Jonathan Hobbs is a student in UC's College-Conservatory of Music. Photo/UC Alumni Association