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The American chral conductor and music pedagogue, Ann Howard Jones, obtained her Bachelor of Music degree (1964), her Master of Musc degree (1966), and her Doctor of Musical Arts (1984) from from the University of Iowa.
From 1984 to 1998, Ann Howard Jones was the assistant conductor to the late Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony choruses, where she was the assistant conductor for choruses, sang in the alto section, assisted with the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers, and helped to organize the Robert Shaw Institute. She sang and recorded with the Festival Singers both in France and in the USA. The Festival Singers were also represented in annual performances of major works for chorus and orchestra at Carnegie Hall in a series of performance workshops. After Robert Shaw’s death in 1999, Jones was invited to conduct the Robert Shaw Tribute Singers for the American Choral Directors Association conferences in San Antonio and Orlando.
Ann Howard Jones is Professor Emerita of Music at Boston University. During her twenty-two years as Director of Choral Activities (1993-2015), she founded and conducted the Symphonic and Chamber Choruses, supervised conducting students in the Concert Chorus and Women’s Chorale, taught graduate choral conducting, and administered the MM and DMA programs in choral conducting. She was also the conductor of the BU Tanglewood Institute Young Artists' Vocal Program Chorus, an auditioned ensemble of high school singers which rehearses and performs at Tanglewood in the summer. Her musicianship, integrity, and influence are present in every corner of the country through the numerous academic appointments of her former students, the transformative experiences of musicians under her baton and a generation of enthusiastic concertgoers. Among her many pupils: Lisette Canton, Michael Driscoll, Miguel Felipe, Joshua Rohde, Patrick Waters
Recognized as a distinguished clinician, adjudicator, teacher and conductor, Ann Howard Jones has led many all-state and regional choruses, workshops, and master classes in the USA, Europe, South America, Canada and Asia. She has been invited to teach and conduct at the University of Iowa, the University of North Texas, Michigan State University, University of Missouri University of Miami, San Diego State University, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Southern Methodist University, Westminster Choir College of Rider University, the University of Georgia, the University of Kentucky, the University of New Mexico, Syracuse University, Florida International University, and the State University of New York at Potsdam.
Choruses at Boston University have been invited to appear at convention of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) in Boston, New York City and Providence. Ann Howard Jones has traveled with a group of BU graduate students to Venice and Padua, Italy, to perform and to study. A similar trip was made to Oslo and Bergen, Norway. In the spring of 2009, the graduate conducting students joined Jones at the national convention of ACDA in Oklahoma City, where she was invited to prepare and conduct the world premiere of Dominick Argento’s Cenotaph.
Among Ann Howard Jones's long list of professional honors are: the coveted Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching from Boston University, one of BU’s highest teaching honors, in 2003, a Fulbright professorship to Brazil, and a lectureship for the Lily Foundation. At the ACDA national conference in 2011, she was named the recipient of the Robert Shaw Choral Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession, the highest award given by the association. In 2014 she received the Distinguished Service award from Chorus America, and in 2015 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Choral Arts New England. |
