Composer Samuel Jones Samuel Jones first came into prominence as a conductor, one of the few Americans to advance through the ranks of the smaller American orchestras to become conductor of one of the majors (the Rochester Philharmonic). He then achieved national recognition in another field as he founded a significant new music school and served for six years as its first dean (Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music). All the while he has continued to compose, quietly amassing what has become a vital and active catalogue of works.

After stepping down as dean, Jones continued as Professor of Composition and Conducting as well as Director of Graduate Studies at the school he founded, for a total of 24 years at Rice. In 1997 he retired from full-time academic life, and he and his wife moved to the Seattle area where he was appointed by Gerard Schwarz as Composer in Residence of the Seattle Symphony. He is now in his eighth year in that position.

Jones focuses most of his creative energies on composition, yet he still manages to spend significant time as a teacher of conducting, for which he has also developed a wide reputation. As a past president of the Conductors’ Guild and as a master teacher at the Conductors Institute, the American Symphony Orchestra League and other conductor study classes, Jones is making a strong contribution to the advancement of the American conductor.

Samuel Jones is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes for his compositions, including a Ford Foundation Recording/Publication Award, a Martha Baird Rockefeller Grant, NEA Grants, repeated ASCAP Awards, an International Angel Award, and the 1986, 1991 and 2003 Music Awards from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. The Seattle Symphony presented him with its 2002 Artistic Recognition Award for outstanding service to the orchestra. He received an honorary doctorate from Millsaps College in May, 2000. He was inducted in April, 2000, into the inaugural class of the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame. He was recently named the Music Alive Composer in Residence for the Meridian Symphony by Meet The Composer and the American Symphony Orchestra League.

Works have been performed by such orchestras as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Utah Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, the New Orleans Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic, and scores of others. His music has been commissioned by, among others, the ASCAP Foundation, Meet the Composer, the Houston Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the American Symphony Orchestra League, the Amarillo Symphony, the Midland-Odessa Symphony, the Sioux City Symphony, the Saginaw Symphony, Millsaps College, the Mississippi Boychoir, and the Choral Society of Greensboro.

Samuel Jones was born on June 2, 1935, in Inverness, Mississippi. A graduate of Central High School in Jackson, he received his undergraduate degree with highest honors at Millsaps College. He acquired his professional training at the Eastman School of Music, where he earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in composition under Howard Hanson, Bernard Rogers, and Wayne Barlow. A former conducting student of Richard Lert and William Steinberg, Jones’ numerous conducting credits include tenures as Conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic, Music Advisor of the Flint Symphony, and Music Director of the Saginaw Symphony, as well as guest conducting engagements with many orchestras, including, among others, the Detroit Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Prague Symphony, and the Iceland Symphony. Early in his career he founded the Alma Symphony and the Delta College Summer Festival of Music in Michigan. His compositions include three symphonies and many other orchestral works, as well as works for chorus and orchestra, opera, and chamber groups. His music is published by Carl Fischer and Campanile Music Press and is recorded by Naxos, CRI, Gasparo, ACA, and Centennial Records. (10/04)