Who we are
Jon Finn Group has been playing together as a band, in one form or another since 1988. Beginning as a series of “fun jams” among best friends, this band has one mission: Play music they love as best as they can. As a four-piece all-instrumental rock band, JFG have performed all over the world at some of the most prestigious concert venues. Their album releases have been well-received among critics and fans of their genre. More recently, Jon’s wife Juli (herself a well-known guitarist/singer/composer) has joined JFG to add an entirely new and exciting layer to the band’s pallet.
Juli Finn - Guitar/Vocals
Juli Finn is a Songwriter, Performer, and Educator. She was a founding member of the instrumental trio Destiny and has played live nationally, opening for artists such as Joe Satriani, Robin Trower, Ronnie James Dio, and Blue Oyster Cult. She has released a full length CD with Destiny and two solo recordings, an EP and a Full Length CD . She has won numerous guitar competitions including Joe Satriani’s Whooznxt, hosted by Guitar Center, and Lincoln Brewster’s Show Me What You Got. Her YouTube Channel has over 6,000 subscribers and 1,000,000 views. Before moving to Boston she played for the Pacific Northwest’s premiere dance band, The Rhythm Nation and the Disco/Funk sensation, DanceMaxx Band. Juli earned her Bachelor’s degree in Guitar performance from Berklee College of Music, Summa Cum Laude. Catch her live in New England with local 80s band, Fast Times, classic 70s rock band, The Experts, and Jon Finn Group. She has been in numerous musicals including Seussical, Nice Work if You Can Get It, Bridges of Madison County, and The Altar Boyz. She is currently earning her Master of Arts degree in Songwriting from Berklee College of Music, June 2023 and she is Assistant Professor of Songwriting at Shenandoah University.
Jon Finn - Guitar
A guitarist since age six, Jon Finn has been a professional musician for most of his life. Today, he’s been repeatedly acknowledged within the international community of musicians as being a clear leader in Modern Rock Guitar as a performer, composer and educator. Joining the guitar faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1988, he started the Jon Finn Group later that same year. To date, they have three internationally released CDs, Don't Look So Serious (Legato Records 1994), Wicked (SEP Records 2000), “Bull in a China Shop” (SEP Records 2010) several independent releases, and countless performances worldwide under their belts. For over three years, Jon wrote a monthly instructional feature for a national magazine called Guitar. Jon has also authored several books for Mel Bay Publications, and several guitar-instruction video courses for Truefire.com. In his freelance pursuits, he's played guitar for the national touring companies of many top-name musical theater productions.
Today, Jon frequently performs and records with the Boston Pops Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Lyric Opera. With them he’s performed with Seth McFarlane, Andy Grammer, Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Amy Grant, Vince Gill, Rockapella, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry (Aerosmith), Natalie Cole, Carly Simon, Bernadette Peters, New York Voices and many others. He’s been involved in a plethora of concerts and recording sessions, including 6 CDs (two of which were Grammy nominated), 8 US concert tours, and one tour in Asia.
Jon has also performed with some of the world’s premier guitarists as a co-featured performer: John Petrucci, Guthrie Govan, Carl Verheyen, Dweezil Zappa, Dave Larue, Andy Timmons, Vinnie Moore, Steve Morse, Tom Scholz, Barry Goudreau, Tom Morello, Mellissa Etheridge and others.
As a teacher, Jon has taught hundreds of musicians who have gone on to successful music careers. Many of these have cited him as a major influence in their own interviews. Besides Berklee, he’s also given guitar clinics and classes for schools and organizations all over the world: Japan, China, Brazil, France, England, Canada, Mexico and all over the US.
One of his songs, “Berlin Wall” appears in the motion picture release “Refusenik”, a documentary about Soviet Jews and their struggle to escape to the US during the Cold-War era. Jon’s guitar is heard on the NFL Theme Song during the football season.
Joe Santerre - Bass
Joe Santerre plays primarily 6 string electric bass. He is the bassist in the Jon Finn Group. Joe has been teaching in the Bass Department at Berklee College of Music since 1984 and is the first primarily 6 string bass player in the department. For seven years he was a contributing writer for Bass Frontiers Magazine. Also, Joe has published three bass books for Berklee Press/Hal Leonard Publications. He has recorded instructional bass video lessons for Jamplay.com. and has a solo CD, “The Scenic Route”. Joe has recorded and/or performed with Jon Finn, Guthrie Govan, Carmen Paris, Chad Wackerman, (Alan Holdsworth, Zappa), Mike Mangini (Dream Theater) Dave DiCenso (JFG, Hiromi) Larry Finn, Mark Walker (Paquito D'Rivera), Danny McClain (Earth Wind & Fire), Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs), Steve Hunt (Stanley Clarke, Alan Holdsworth), George Garzone, John Blackwell (Prince, Justin Timberlake), Casey Schuerell (Jean Luc Ponty), Equie Castillo (Tito Puente),Tom Coster (Santana), Dino Govoni, and Ross Ramsay among others. Joe likes to make the groove feel good! He spends his free time with family & nature.
Larry Finn - Drums
Though he has no relation to Jon or Juli, the musical rapport they create together is a reflection of Larry’s unique, empathetic, and enthusiastic drumming style. Larry is one of the most popular drum instructors on the Berklee College of Music faculty and a very well-known freelance drummer with credits ranging from The Courage Brothers and Tiger Okoshi to Rent. Recently, Larry released an instructional drumming video called Accelerate Your Drumming for Rittor Music that has brought his personal drumming style acclaim all over the world.
"Being a drummer is like being a professional athlete in that you have to be in shape both physically and mentally. A lot of people, when they see a drummer playing a repetitive groove for three minutes, might not realize how hard that is to do. It's difficult to put the whole package—good technique and a musical approach—together."
Rich Cesarini - Keyboards
Rich Cesarini has been a well-known piano/keyboard/accordion player since
the mid 1980's. He has played and recorded with many bands in New England including the Fat City Band, Po'Boys, Godsends, Big Daddy and the Accelerators and NH favorites Brickyard Blues. Rich played keyboards on Bus Hair, a track from Jon Finn's release "Don't Look So Serious." In addition to his keyboard duties in The Experts, Rich also plays for The Terrifics, an acoustic duo based on the south shore
of MA and with the popular New England Grateful Dead cover band Deadbeat.
Most recently, Rich opened his own music school known as “Southeast School of Music” in Easton, MA
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