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Jon Park-Wheeler was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and cannot remember a time in his life when he did not play music. He acquired the rudiments of music from piano lessons he undertook as a child, but was drawn to the guitar when the Beatles led the British Invasion of music into North America. He has been working at playing the instrument for some 53 years since.
Jon has performed throughout Canada and as far abroad as Europe and Australia. Among artists he has worked with are John "Spider" Macdonald, Neville Wells, Carroll Baker, Ronnie Prophet, Tracey Brown, The Family Brown in many of its iterations, Dan Paul Rogers, Stephanie Beaumont, Susan Aglukark, Tuudjaat, The Sons of Maxwell, Colin Amey and Bahoo, the Brat, and the Commander, to name just a few.
Jon's musical versatility includes producing, arranging and song writing and he has recorded and produced many styles of music, ranging from Country to Gospel, Folk to Native, Christmas to Contemporary, and quite a few Children's recordings in both English and French. He has also appeared frequently on television, appearing in five "True North" specials for CBC, multiple appearances on Dini Petty, Canada AM, and "Open Mike" with Mike Bullard. In addition, he has performed on Canada Day on Parliament Hill, worked as a staff guitarist for a great many telethons, and appeared in a variety of specials. He was house guitarist on CTV's "Spirit of the Country" series, and Dominic D'Arcy’s musical sidekick on the CHRO series "D'Arcy’s Beat". He was the puppeteer on the popular CTV/YTV children’s television show "Marie Soleil" for all one hundred and thirty episodes of its run.
In recent years, he has been teaching guitar, mandolin, and bass in a variety of styles, and performs live, most recently with Bahoo, the Brat and the Commander. He released his first solo CD in the fall of 2013.
Jon feels that none of what he has done would have been possible without the endless love of his wife of 43 years, Heather. Together, they have two children, Ozzie and Jessie.
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