Thanks to the kind and talented Meaghan Ritchey, we have a brand new bio. Woohoo!
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Spark & Echo is a family band of songwriting-storytellers led by husband and wife duo Jonathon Roberts and Emily Clare Zempel. Their music brings forgotten poetry and wild stories from the Bible to life: visions of sparkling wheels in the sky, hunger and thirst, and legends of love as strong as death weave with memorable melodies and captivating rhythms. Drawing from a classical background, influenced by the pianism of Rufus Wainwright and Ben Folds, and emulating Paul Simon’s narratival techniques, Spark & Echo sings epic tales of love and adventure.
Jonathon and Emily hail from “America’s Dairyland”. They grew up on a hobby farm and the suburbs respectively, where the tunes in their hearts hummed from a young age: Jonathon began playing piano at five and Emily picked up Boris the Bassoon at twelve. Never to shy away from risk and weary of easily-pegged definitions, Jonathon wrote a musical on the Book of Ruth that was declared heretical and never performed. Both went off to Lawrence University where they met at the audition for jazz choir. It wasn’t long before they began playing a real love fool’s game. Having a panache for fibbery, they joked that Emily was in love with Jonathon and he thought she was gross. Yeah right! They started dating a few years later.
After graduating, Emily moved to NYC to get her MFA and Jonathon toured the country in an RV with his one-man-performance-art piece on the Apostle Paul. As with every good band story, then there WAS a break up, a long one! During “The Dark Years,” Jonathon moved to NYC with a bunch of musician friends and developed his musical prowess.
Since they attended the same church, there were plenty of strained-Sunday-pew-sit-ins. And then in a fit of whimsy, things that were once broken began to work together for good. When Jonathon asked Emily to teach yoga at his Bushwick studio, they probably didn’t know what a stretch would occur. One afternoon, Emily asked him to hang up fliers with her for the class, and in exchange she made him Thai food. Nine months and a couple of Pad Thais later, they were engaged and married shortly thereafter.
And that’s when they gave BIRTH...to Spark and Echo Arts, their non-profit.
They have a dual vision: as a band, they make music; as a non-profit, they seek to “create the world’s largest multi-disciplinary ‘illumination’ of the Bible.” Spark and Echo Arts engages artists from a diversity of styles and backgrounds working in the top of their field. The band grew out of and raises funds for the non-profit. A gallery of work they have commissioned over the years can be found at www.sparkandecho.org.
Committed to longevity, Jonathon and Emily are now making a home together in a converted piano factory in the South Bronx. This affords them the space to hone their musical, theatre, and managerial skills side by side.
They’ve just released their second full-length album Inheritance which was recorded and co-produced with the Foote brothers (Welcome Wagon) and elucidates Psalm 42 in “Deep Calls to Deep”, Galatians 2:20 in “Buy Me a Hat”, Proverbs 31 in “What a Day”, and many more. Their voices harmonize like “it was meant to be.” They dance around complex stories with a whimsy indicative of their time spent in the theatre.
You’ve got to experience it firsthand and join them on this journey of a lifetime.
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Spark & Echo is a family band of songwriting-storytellers led by husband and wife duo Jonathon Roberts and Emily Clare Zempel. Their music brings forgotten poetry and wild stories from the Bible to life: visions of sparkling wheels in the sky, hunger and thirst, and legends of love as strong as death weave with memorable melodies and captivating rhythms. Drawing from a classical background, influenced by the pianism of Rufus Wainwright and Ben Folds, and emulating Paul Simon’s narratival techniques, Spark & Echo sings epic tales of love and adventure.
Jonathon and Emily hail from “America’s Dairyland”. They grew up on a hobby farm and the suburbs respectively, where the tunes in their hearts hummed from a young age: Jonathon began playing piano at five and Emily picked up Boris the Bassoon at twelve. Never to shy away from risk and weary of easily-pegged definitions, Jonathon wrote a musical on the Book of Ruth that was declared heretical and never performed. Both went off to Lawrence University where they met at the audition for jazz choir. It wasn’t long before they began playing a real love fool’s game. Having a panache for fibbery, they joked that Emily was in love with Jonathon and he thought she was gross. Yeah right! They started dating a few years later.
After graduating, Emily moved to NYC to get her MFA and Jonathon toured the country in an RV with his one-man-performance-art piece on the Apostle Paul. As with every good band story, then there WAS a break up, a long one! During “The Dark Years,” Jonathon moved to NYC with a bunch of musician friends and developed his musical prowess.
Since they attended the same church, there were plenty of strained-Sunday-pew-sit-ins. And then in a fit of whimsy, things that were once broken began to work together for good. When Jonathon asked Emily to teach yoga at his Bushwick studio, they probably didn’t know what a stretch would occur. One afternoon, Emily asked him to hang up fliers with her for the class, and in exchange she made him Thai food. Nine months and a couple of Pad Thais later, they were engaged and married shortly thereafter.
And that’s when they gave BIRTH...to Spark and Echo Arts, their non-profit.
They have a dual vision: as a band, they make music; as a non-profit, they seek to “create the world’s largest multi-disciplinary ‘illumination’ of the Bible.” Spark and Echo Arts engages artists from a diversity of styles and backgrounds working in the top of their field. The band grew out of and raises funds for the non-profit. A gallery of work they have commissioned over the years can be found at www.sparkandecho.org.
Committed to longevity, Jonathon and Emily are now making a home together in a converted piano factory in the South Bronx. This affords them the space to hone their musical, theatre, and managerial skills side by side.
They’ve just released their second full-length album Inheritance which was recorded and co-produced with the Foote brothers (Welcome Wagon) and elucidates Psalm 42 in “Deep Calls to Deep”, Galatians 2:20 in “Buy Me a Hat”, Proverbs 31 in “What a Day”, and many more. Their voices harmonize like “it was meant to be.” They dance around complex stories with a whimsy indicative of their time spent in the theatre.
You’ve got to experience it firsthand and join them on this journey of a lifetime.
