Jon Waters

Jonathan N. "Jon" Waters (born June 7, 1976) is an American marching band director. He served as the Director of Marching and Athletic Bands at Ohio State University (OSU), and was fired in 2014 after an investigation found that he failed to address a highly sexualized culture within the band that promoted sexual harassment. Some alumni of the marching band have disputed these claims. Waters sued OSU for defamation; the lawsuit was later dismissed.

In 2016, Waters was hired to be an assistant professor of music and the director of bands at Heidelberg University, Ohio.

Waters was born and raised in Elmore, Ohio. He was a guitar and saxophone player in eighth grade, when he saw The Ohio State University Marching Band on television with his father, and decided he would one day dot the "i" in the Script Ohio. He switched from saxophone to sousaphone. Upon entering Ohio State in fall 1994 with a plan to become a lawyer, he tried out for the Marching Band, but was cut during tryouts. He earned a spot the following year. In 1996, he switched his major to music. He went on to dot the "i" on November 12, 1998 at the home game against Michigan. Waters was a band member through 1999. In 2000, he received a bachelor's degree in music education.

In 2000, after completing five years as a band member, Waters began his professional career as a band director, staying on with The Ohio State University Marching Band as a graduate assistant. In 2002 he was hired as an assistant director. Upon the retirement of director Jon Woods in September 2011, Waters was given the role of interim director. On 10 October 2012, executive dean and vice provost of the College of Arts and Sciences Joseph Steinmetz, announced his promotion to director.

On October 6, 2012 at the home game vs. Nebraska, Waters' band performed a video game tribute show featuring unprecedented use of animations, including a horse which galloped down the field and then reared up on its hindquarters, as well as the Tetris and Pac-Man video games. This show received national attention, with a YouTube video achieving four million hits by the following Monday. In 2013 the band began using iPads to reduce paper usage and to design and execute more complex shows. Waters and his staff created shows with extensive animation, including a Michael Jackson show which animated Mr. Jackson moonwalking and doing "the splits", and the Hollywood Blockbuster show with animations of Superman saving a falling building, Harry Potter winning a Quidditch match, a dinosaur eating a Michigan football player, and an epic battle at sea between two sailing ships.

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