Early Life—Piano Lessons
One could say of all Jonathan Wing’s interests, which are many, his first love is music. Jonathan’s siblings were musical, but he was the child where musical intuition came naturally. He actually quit piano lessons once. When asking his mom if he could quit, she told him it was up to him. But she let him know it was his responsibility to tell his teacher he was done. Understanding his talent, Jonathan’s piano teacher tried to convince him to stick with it. She questioned him, “Why do you want to quit?” Jonathan responded, “I want to hang out with friends and play video games.” Disappointed, his piano teacher told him he was welcome back should he ever change his mind. She also promised if and when he came back, they would pick up right where he left off. One week later, Jonathan was back. Somehow, he realized video games were not as rewarding as his music.
Jonathan enjoyed playing hymns at church. Dutifully he played the notes precisely as they were printed in the song book. One Sunday an elderly gentleman asked Jonathan why he continued to play the hymns exactly as written. He too had recognized Jonathan’s talent and gently suggested, “You can do better than that.” It was his statement that gave Jonathan the permission and freedom to play around with the chords while playing the prelude music. Jonathan began creating his own musical compositions. That beginning spark of exploration propelled Jonathan to write music.
School, Business, and Cooking
Jonathan’s father was from the Netherlands and his mom from the Philippines. They met while working at the hospital in Niagara Falls, Canada, where they raised their family. When Jonathan was 8 years old, the family moved to Utah. His father was offered a position as a physician teaching at the University of Utah hospital. Jonathan would have loved to major and graduate in music, but it would not have been considered a solid career choice. Instead, he studied Global Marketing at the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University.
After graduating from BYU, Jonathan made a unique change, acknowledging his next goal was to attend culinary school. Jonathan gained a love of cooking from his mom. He applied for and was accepted to Le Cordon Bleu, one of the world's most renowned culinary schools. While studying at Le Cordon Bleu, Jonathan joined the Editorial Food team at The Los Angeles Times, where he tested recipes and wrote about food for the paper’s weekly food segments, for both print and online. Combining his culinary school with his business degree, Jonathan created Perfect Baking, an online business and resource providing products and services to professional and home bakers. He developed and manufactured a one-of-a kind digital kitchen scale, designed a male apron line, and wrote instructional baking television segments.
As a young twenty-something entrepreneur Jonathan worked from sun up until sun down, until he successfully burned himself out. Needing a break, Jonathan went back to school, this time attending the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science, graduating in international development. His emphasis included development studies, complex emergencies, research design, social research and policy, organizational change, and managing humanitarianism.
Jonathan would say the supreme benefit he gained while attending the London School was meeting his wife, Emilia. Jonathan is all about family. The most important thing to Jonathan, more than any of his dreams of music, business, and culinary talents, is spending time with his wife and their 5 children.
Jonathan moved back to the United States and was eventually recruited to be the Director for Marketing and Public Relations for Spark Innovations where he managed 16 products from 8 brands before receiving a strong impression to seek employment at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
RootsTech and Music
He was hired as a project manager in the Publishing Services Department where he managed the production needs for the Church. Jonathan somewhat enjoyed his managerial work but longed to use his creative talents again. He grew weary of "staying in his lane" and wanted to share thoughts and ideas that would get implemented.
Jonathan was surprised when he was pulled into a conference room by Jen Allen, the head of the 9-member RootsTech team. She mentioned there might be a position for him to work with the RootsTech team as a product manager. Jonathan was excited, thrilled, and will ever be grateful to Jen for giving him the opportunity. Jonathan realized all his schooling, past work experience, and talents had prepared him for this position. Jonathan now manages the creative and production aspects of the RootsTech conference, including writing songs for the worldwide event.
“It’s a wonderful and humbling opportunity to use my talents for this conference. It is also incredibly eye-opening just how involved the Lord is with this work. More often than not, thoughts will come to me about what needs to be done. When they come, I write them down and then follow through. It is amazing how confident you can feel about an idea when you know it isn’t coming from you. I guess you could say all that’s needed is the courage to follow through with the revelation we receive!”
Jonathan was able to bring his love for music into the mix when a request was made for a musical arrangement of the hymn “The Day Dawn is Breaking” at the 2017 RootsTech conference. Jonathan volunteered. It sounded like a fun and relaxing task for him, and it was something he wanted to do. Nathan Pacheco performed the song. Jonathan remembers how rewarding the response was as he witnessed the audience being touched through the music.
Jonathan arranged 4 other hymns for RootsTech the years following, but it wasn’t until 2022 that he did something he had never done before—writing a pop theme song “Choose Connection” for the conference. Written in one night, “Choose Connection” captured the conference theme and set a precedence for the event going forward.
With the success of Jonathan’s first theme song came the nervousness of "Can I do it again?" Fortunately, as he worked on this year’s musical theme “Uniting,” he was surprised how the words flowed. “The melody came to me first, and I knew the words to the chorus right away.” The song, Jonathan felt, had to portray what this organization stands for. The words to the song remind us we are all one family and have been connected all along. No one is alone. Looking to our family history does bring us together, and it’s a powerful thing!
Thank you, Jonathan, for sticking with those piano lessons!
What Is RootsTech?
RootsTech is a place to learn, be inspired, and make connections through family history. Hosted by FamilySearch and sponsored by other leading genealogy organizations, RootsTech has hundreds of expert classes, tips and tricks videos, and inspiring stories that can help you experience family history like never before. Visit our on-demand learning library, or make plans to join us for our next virtual or in-person conference event.
