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"Robert Shaw--Man of Many Voices": Alumni Fellow Ann Howard Jones hosts film screening

Mar 5, 2019

07:30 PM

Voxman Music Building, Voxman Concert Hall

93 East Burlington Street, Iowa City, IA 52240

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Film Poster

Documentary Film Screening: "Robert Shaw--Man of Many Voices"

A 2016 film on the music, life, and legacy of the iconic choral conductor and composer, Maestro Robert Shaw. The award-winning documentary is narrated by David Hyde Pierce.

Followed by a question-and-answer session with Dr. Ann Howard Jones (BM ‘64, MM ‘66, DMA ’84), who was Maestro Shaw's Assistant Conductor with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

Dr. Jones is on campus as a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Alumni Fellow, hosted by the School of Music. She will guest-conduct Kantorei and the University Choir on Friday, March 8.


Ann Howard Jones (BM ‘64, MM ‘66, DMA ’84) is Professor Emerita of Music at Boston University.  During her twenty-three years as Director of Choral Activities, 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.  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.

Recognized as a distinguished clinician, teacher and conductor, Dr. Jones has led many all state and regional choruses, workshops, and master classes in the U.S., Europe, South America, Canada and Asia.  Most recently, to honor the 100th anniversary of the birth of Robert Shaw, Chorus America invited Dr. Jones to participate in a series of workshops on the Brahms German Requiem in Atlanta. In June of 2016, she was invited to headline a session for Chorus America’s National Conference in Cincinnati.

Among the institutions where she has been invited to conduct or has held teaching and conducting appointments are: the University of Iowa, the University of Georgia, Emory University, the University of Illinois, the University of North Texas, Michigan State University, University of Missouri-Columbia, 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, the State University of New York at Potsdam, Luther College, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and Eastman School of Music.   In the fall of 2016, Dr. Jones was Visiting Professor of Music and Conductor of the famed Nordic Choir at Luther College in Decorah.  In the spring of 2017, she filled the position as sabbatical replacement at the Eastman School in Rochester, NY, and in the spring of 2018, she will teach at Notre Dame and at the University of Southern California.  This past fall she held short residencies at Indiana University and the University of Arizona.

Dr. Jones was the Assistant Conductor for choruses to the late Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony choruses from 1984-1998.   There she sang in the alto section, assisted with the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers and helped organize the Robert Shaw Institute.  She sang and recorded with both the Atlanta Symphony Chorus and the Institute’s Festival Singers both in France and in the U.S.  The Festival Singers were also represented in annual performances of major works for chorus and orchestra at Carnegie Hall in a series of workshops.  After 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.

Choruses at Boston University appeared at the conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) in Boston, New York City and Providence.  Jones 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 the honors that Jones has received are the coveted Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching from Boston University, a Fulbright professorship to Brazil, and a lectureship for the Lily Foundation.  At the national conference of ACDA 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 2012 she received the Distinguished Service award from Chorus America and in 2015 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Choral Arts New England. In 2017 she received Honorary Lifetime Membership in the National Collegiate Choral Organization. 

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