My Story
Brand strategist. Media builder.
Classical pianist by training.
I’ve spent fifteen years helping exceptional artists and organizations become as visible as they are talented.
2006
Cairn University, Philadelphia
I began my Bachelor of Music at Cairn University, studying piano in the performance program under Dr. Samuel Hsu. This is where everything started — not in a marketing classroom, but at a keyboard. Understanding what it means to prepare for a performance, to put your work in front of an audience, to be judged on the quality of what you create — that’s the foundation of everything I’ve built since.
2010
Astral Artists, Philadelphia
During my final year of undergrad, I interned at Astral Artists — a nonprofit mentoring program that specialized in developing the early careers of extraordinary classical musicians. This was my first immersion in the business of classical music: how emerging artists are identified, developed, and launched into professional careers. The experience confirmed what I already suspected — that the gap between artistic talent and professional visibility was where the most important work needed to happen.
2011
City, University of London
I moved to London to pursue my Master of Arts in Cultural Policy and Management. London and Philadelphia — and later, New York — are the cities that have shaped my strategic thinking more than anywhere else. The MA gave me the policy and institutional lens. The experience of living inside one of the world’s great cultural capitals gave me the instincts.
2011
IMG Artists, London
While completing my MA, I interned at IMG Artists — one of the world’s largest artist management firms. This was my introduction to the business of classical music at the highest level: how careers are built globally, how relationships between artists and presenters work, and how the international classical music industry operates behind the scenes.
2013
Philadelphia / New York City
After grad school, I launched my career as a freelance publicist under the name Jonathan Eifert Public Relations, working with classical musicians and arts organizations during the years when digital media was beginning to transform the industry. I learned the craft in the trenches — one artist at a time, one press campaign at a time.
2013
The Golandsky Institute at Princeton University
One of my earliest professional engagements. I developed a multi-year digital transformation strategy for the Golandsky Institute, a specialized educational organization hosting an annual symposium at Princeton University. The work included launching a subscription-based streaming platform that reached pianists in 50+ countries and driving a 34% increase in in-person attendance over five years. The results earned coverage in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. This was the engagement that proved I could operate at the institutional level — building infrastructure, not just running campaigns.
2015
Michael Fabiano
I built the social media presence for one of opera’s fastest-rising tenors — the first singer in history to win both the Richard Tucker Award and the Beverly Sills Award in the same year. Instagram followers grew 166%, all organic. Within two years, the New York Times published a major feature calling him one of the most exciting tenors in the world.
2015
The Cleveland International Piano Competition
I began working with CIPC in 2015, leading up to and through the 2016 competition. I brokered a partnership between the competition and medici.tv that produced their first-ever webcast featuring The Cleveland Orchestra. Facebook reach increased by over 1,400%. This was the engagement that proved the model: strategic marketing infrastructure changes what’s possible for a performing arts organization.
2018
New York City
I moved to New York and launched Classical Post — a media property dedicated to telling the stories of exceptional musicians in their own voices. I started it from a hot desk at the original WeWork in SoHo. What began as a blog, morphed into a podcast, and has grown to be a publishing platform that has reached more than 250,000 people since launch, featuring over 150 episodes with guests including Hilary Hahn, Klaus Mäkelä, the Danish String Quartet, Anna Clyne, and many more.
2019
Gold Sound Media Founded
I incorporated Gold Sound Media to expand from freelance PR into a full-service brand strategy and marketing consultancy. The thesis was simple: exceptional artists and organizations deserve strategic visibility systems, not ad hoc promotion. Everything I’d learned over the previous decade went into building this firm.
2022
Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
Gold Sound Media deployed on-site for the full three-week competition as the social media strategy and distribution partner. The result: 25 million webcast views in 170 countries. 300 million social media impressions. 80,000 new followers in three weeks. Yunchan Lim’s Rachmaninoff Third trended at #24 on YouTube globally. This engagement proved that video-first distribution methodology, deployed at scale, can transform the reach of a world-class institution.
2023-2025
GRAMMY Campaigns
Gold Sound Media led the visibility campaigns surrounding GRAMMY nominations and wins for Jessie Montgomery and the Miró Quartet. Montgomery won for “Best Contemporary Classical Composition”; the Miró Quartet earned their first-ever GRAMMY nomination. These weren’t accidental — they were the result of strategic visibility infrastructure built over months of sustained positioning.
2024-2025
Miró Quartet: The Video-First Proof Point
Nearly 500,000 video views in 12 months — entirely organic, zero paid advertising — for one of America’s preeminent string quartets. Before Gold Sound Media, their Instagram had reached 804 people in four months. After: 303,000+ unique accounts reached. This is the clearest demonstration of what algorithmic distribution methodology produces when applied to exceptional content.
2025
The Cliburn Returns
The Cliburn engaged Gold Sound Media for a second competition cycle. Webcast views doubled at the close of competition day — from 10 million to 20 million — before any post-event viewing. Combined across both cycles: 45+ million webcast views. The return engagement is the proof that the results are systematic, not a one-time spike.
2026
Gilmore Piano Festival
Gold Sound Media was engaged by the Gilmore — one of the most prestigious festivals in North America — for the 2026 festival campaign. Working with an institution of this caliber, alongside competitions like the Cliburn, is exactly where this work was always heading: the organizations defining the future of classical music.
Today
Gold Sound Media serves a selective roster of artists and organizations. I’m writing a book about visibility in the algorithmic age. Classical Post continues to grow. And the thesis keeps proving itself: in 2026, positioning happens through video, and the artists and organizations that invest in strategic distribution will define the next era of classical music.