Todd Jonz Trombone Danby, Vermont

Feeling somehow unfulfilled with his mastery of the ever-popular tonette in Mrs. Hoffman's fourth grade class, Todd Jonz was steadfast in his resolve to take up the trombone (although the genesis of this resolve is lost to posterity.)  Despite the fact that his arm was not quite long enough to reach sixth position, he began trombone lessons that same year and was permitted to join the high school band as a fifth grader (there are certain advantages to beginning one's musical career in a very small, very rural town in central Kentucky.)  But youthful passions being what they are, his interests were channelled elsewhere by the time he entered high school, and his beloved King Cleveland Superior spent the next thirty years in a closet.

After receiving a B.A. in Drama from Yale University, Todd briefly pursued a career in the theatre before realizing that there was a certain friction between earning a livable wage and undertaking a career in the arts.  Having taken a handful of computer science courses at Yale (purely to meet distribution requirements, of course) he turned his attention to the computer industry in the mid '70s.  After receiving a lucky break and joining the data processing department of a large produce company in Salinas, California, Todd spent the next twenty-odd years as a software engineer in California's Silicon Valley with IBM/ROLM, 3Com, and Sun Microsystems.  In 1994 he was a founder of Infoseek, the first commercial search engine on the Internet, which was acquired by the Walt Disney Company in 1998 (and subsequently twiddled, re-twiddled, and ultimately disbanded with then Disney CEO Michael Eisner's infamous 2001 pronouncement that the Internet was "not ready for primetime.")  Fortunately Todd left Infoseek shortly after the company went public and well before the high tech bubble burst, and had the extreme good fortune to retire at a relatively young age after selling his interest in the company.

Soon after he retired Todd's wife gave him the Bach 16 he had always lusted after in his youth as a Christmas present, and continuing his pursuits as a trombonist has occupied the vast majority of his time ever since.  Today he lives in Vermont with his wife, Susan, and their two English springer spaniels, Max and Maggie. He plays regularly with several college and community bands, a big band, a Dixieland combo, and two brass quintets (truth be known, Todd has no pride whatsoever and will play with anyone foolish enough to let him sit in.)  While his skills as a trombonist are surpassed by many, his love for the instrument is exceeded by none.