Brian Jones, concert organist, boston

Brian Jones has accepted an invitation to serve as Interim Associate Organist at Memorial Church, Harvard University in Cambridge, MA for second semester of the 2007—2008 academic year, where he will work with Edward Elwyn Jones, Gund Organist & Choirmaster and the music staff, playing services, occasionally conducting the University Choir and Choral Fellows, and assisting with special services and concerts. He is Emeritus Director of Music and Organist at Trinity Church, Boston, where he directed a widely acclaimed program for 20 years. From Sept, 2005 to Nov, 2007. he was Interim Director of Music & Organist at Old South Church, Copley Square, Boston. From Sept, 2004-Feb 2005, he was Interim Director of Cathedral Music at the Cathedral of St John, Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has performed as an organ concert artist in many parts of the United States and England, and his programs have often been praised for their variety and interest, as well as for the artistic and communicative integrity he brings to the music of the King of Instruments. He has been heard in such venues as the National Cathedral, Washington, DC, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, St. Paul's Cathedral, London, St Thomas Church, New York City, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Portland, OR, Rutgers University, Harvard, Yale, Smith College, Westminster College in PA, and Wheaton College (MA). He has often played programs for conventions of the American Guild of Organists, Organ Historical Society, and the Association of Anglican Musicians. With flutist Susan Clarke he has performed many programs which have explored a wide range of the literature for flute and organ. He has released many recordings of organ solo music, music for brass and organ, for piano and organ, and with the Trinity Choir.

Mr. Jones gave a highly acclaimed performance at the Romantic Organ Symposium in Milwaukee, which a reviewer said "had life, passion, excitement--all elements too seldom heard in any organ recital, indeed too seldom heard in any recital." He has been a tireless advocate for the organ and its music, and had done many demonstrations for listeners of all ages, incorporating music of all periods and styles into his programs. He has often been heard on National Public Radio, and also on the BBC. He has taught at many workshops and conferences of the American Guild of Organists and American Choral Director's Association, and also at the Evergreen Music Conference, Sewanee COnference, and St. Dunstan's Workshop. This summer (2004) he will lecture at the Eton Choral Course in England. He has played many dedication recitals of new and rebuilt organs, and has been praised for his ability to communicate the breadth, depth and brilliance of a new instrument to members of congregations which have invested significant resources in such a new venture.

In his time at Trinity Church in Boston, one of America's great churches, he built the Trinity Choir into a group of national and international prominence, and founded the Parish Choir which has also been highly successful. Candlelight Carols, on the London-Polygram label, has enjoyed immense popularity for more than a decade, and in a review of With Heart And Voice, critic David Vernier called the Trinity Choir “one of America’s outstanding choirs,” praising the group as “musically accomplished, exemplary in technique, experienced in a formidable range of repertoire, and possessing a concordant, evenly-balanced ensemble sound that can only be described as sublime.” Radiant Light—Songs for the Millennium, on the Dorian label, has had similar response, and listener reviews of this recording on amazon.com average five stars. A Choral Christmas, released several years ago, elicited the following first review: “this is a first rate recording that will satisfy all listeners looking for an ideal all-around Christmas choral collection.” Gramophone Magazine said: “We hear sweetness, purity, and serenity throughout this recording, certainly an example of American choral performance at its height. Recorded in Trinity Church’s reverberant yet transparent acoustics, the recording brings reflective and exuberant holiday sentiments into glowing focus.” During the month of December, 2001, A Choral Christmas was consistently in the top 25 CD’s on amazon.com. His latest CD with the Trinity Choir, The Sounds of Light, will be released this spring. The Trinity Choir has often been heard on National Public Radio, as well as in Great Britain on the BBC, where the group was recently featured in a February broadcast especially recorded in Boston by British engineers. In June, 1997, the Trinity Choir toured England, with services and performances in such significant venues as Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral, London; Salisbury Cathedral; and New College, Oxford. The Trinity Choir toured Central Europe in June, 2004.

He is a graduate of Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Boston University and studied organ with Haskell Thomson, Jack Fisher, choral directing with Robert Fountain, and orchestral conducting with Hermann Genhart, and eurythmics with Inda Howland.

Mr. Jones assumed his first regular position as an organist at age 14, and carries on somewhat of a family tradition: his grandfather was an organist and his great uncle, a farmer in Maine, played at the Federated Church in Turner, ME for 66 years.