Boston Singers' Resource News Bulletin December 7, 2004

Baritone, Thomas Jones, is a much-featured and popular performer on the stages of New England, in North America in general, in Europe and in the West Indies. A noted interpreter of the Oratorio repertoire, he was the cover interview in the July/August, 1993, issue of The New York Opera Newsletter (now Classical Singer Magazine). His resume includes opera roles (particularly Donizetti, Rossini, Puccini, and Verdi ), music theater works, and multiple performances of the standard oratorio literature. He spoke with BSR about how he came to be part of the Boston music scene, how his career has developed and about his love of teaching.

Baritone Thomas Jones has had solo engagements with orchestras, choruses, opera companies, pops orchestras and recital series throughout the world. He has interpreted the concert repertoire of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Vaughan Williams and more, to critical acclaim. Mr. Jones has appeared with well over 150 choruses, under the baton of notable maestros such as Christopher Hogwood, Thomas Dunn, John Alexander, Robert Page, John Oliver, and Gerald Mack. Richard Buell of The Boston Globe calls the vocal and stage presence of Thomas Jones "irresistible". Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times proclaims that Mr. Jones sings "with plush sounds and musical vigor".

Mr. Jones has been part of many well-known Festivals, including Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Berkshire Choral Festival, The Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, Great Waters Music Festival and Monadnock Music. He has sung with the Boston Lyric Opera, the Harrisburg Opera Company of Pennsylvania and Opera New England. His Boston-area orchestral appearances include The Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Boston Civic Orchestra, The Back Bay Chorale, Coro Allegro, The Worcester Symphony and The Nashua Symphony. Mr. Jones was a semifinalist in the International Bel Canto Foundation Vocal Competition and a semifinalist in the New York Oratorio Competition. In the summer of 2000, he sang in a concert tour of Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Joe Stroup: What got you started singing? Are there other musicians in your family?

Thomas Jones: My grandfather is the only one I know of in my family with any kind of musical background. He emigrated from Wales to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, which is where I'm from. He had no formal training, but he had an amazing ear and could play anything at the piano that you sang for him. I studied organ for eight years, as did my two brothers. When I was about 8 years old we were learning songs at my church and I realized I could sing, clearly and purely. I've been singing ever since. Until I was about 12, I was a high-voiced soprano. Then came the 'tragic times' of puberty. But I weathered that and came out the other end still singing. I majored in Music Education (K-12) at Mansfield University (part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education).


JS: Before we continue, I have to ask; are you ever confused with the other Welsh Baritone named Tom Jones?

TJ: Well, I started out using Tom. It's more the kind of person that I am. I'm not that kind of formal guy. It (changing the name) had to happen, though, because of an odd little incident in Washington, DC, where I was scheduled to sing 'Messiah'. Some woman actually threatened to sue the orchestra because that Tom Jones wasn't singing. From that time on, my manager said, I should stay with Thomas.


JS: What made you decide to build your career here? Why not New York?

TJ: I've always been drawn to Boston. As a kid I had this 'thing' for New England, the history, the culture, everything about it. To give you an idea: I was very map oriented, loved to draw them and look at them, and, once, I mapped out a vacation to New England. Then I begged my parents to take us there. I was the guide and I had the whole thing memorized, right down to where we were going to park the car! I remember walking down Boylston Street, I was only about 12, and feeling like I was home. I told my parents, 'I'm going to live here someday'.

It was always the goal; to come here. I taught high school in Harrisburg, PA for five years as the choral director but I knew I wanted to sing. So, I earned my Masters in Vocal Performance, also at Mansfield, and moved immediately to Boston.

I knew a lot about what was going on here musically and a lot about the performance organizations from the Mansfield faculty. I knew it was one of the few cities in the country where musicians are actually working and that there were lots of solo possibilities. Boston was a better place to get a career going than living in New York City. New York was, is, so much harder to get started in. There's so much competition, so many voices. Lots of wonderful young singers get swallowed by New York or spend all their energies just living there. Now I can go to New York and I'm a singer from out of town. I get to perform in these great places without having to go through the 'pain and agony' of trying to make it there first.


JS: So how, exactly, did things get started for you in Boston?

TJ: I came here with my Masters and started doing some post-graduate work at New England Conservatory and Boston University. I hoped to finish a doctorate. But I was also getting work. I was on the go a lot. At some point, I received some advice from Tom Dunn (former Artistic Director of the Handel & Haydn Society), whom I consider my mentor, that I decided to act on. He told me I should 'go and sing, don't finish the doctorate', to strike while the iron was hot. He advised, 'if you do teach later it will be because of your performance and not because of a piece of paper'. I took the chance and it has proved to be absolutely right on the mark.

But I give the credit for the opportunities that came my way, in part, to Patricia Stedry, an amazing voice teacher. (A protégé of Mary Davenport. Both have taught at Boston University.) She was extremely meticulous that the voice was in line, that I wasn't doing material that was too big. Truthfully, although I had finished a Masters degree and knew a lot of repertoire, it wasn't until I moved to Boston that I learned, really, how to sing, to figure out what to do with my voice, what the inner workings of the anatomy were.


JS: The repertoire that you list on your web page shows quite a range. Do you have any favorite roles or special works that you like to do?

TJ: Basically, I have built my career on the Oratorio repertoire. Early in my career I made the conscious decision that I wanted to be, for lack of a better word, a 'serious' singer, though I don't think that one is more serious than the other. But there is a time while you're trying to establish yourself in a career that you don't want to send mixed messages. In the beginning, if you send a confusing message no one knows who you really are. Is he a Broadway singer or does he do opera or does he do concert work? I made the choice I did because I love the Oratorio repertoire, I enjoy it and I was good at it. And I didn't think of it or try to use it as something to lead me into an opera career. That's fine for a lot of people, but I never saw it that way. Plus, singing a lot of Bach and Handel so early in my career proved to be a smart thing to do. Learning the music of Bach, in particular, makes you a sharper musician because his music is so cerebral.


JS: But there's also a good deal of Opera in your repertoire.

TJ: Mostly I sing at Opera galas where I'll sing arias with an orchestra. But if you look at the roles I've done, you'll see that they tend to be some of the lesser roles. I don't have a huge voice though it's sizable and resonant in the right spots. But I'm not a Verdi singer and that's okay. We are who we are and we bloom where we're planted. Early on I sang with the Boston Concert Opera which was directed at the time by David Stockton. He gave me roles like the Messenger/Assassin in Verdi's 'Macbeth', Baron Douphol in 'La Traviata', and Sharper in Massenet's 'Manon'. He cast the larger roles with some of the major, important names in the business.

Being a young singer (in my twenties) it was really great to be able to be part of that. But back then it was more important for me to be on stage watching them than to be doing music that pushed me into an area where it would have been uncomfortable or that would have made me a singer I would later regret. I avoided blowing my voice out by not doing bigger things too soon. Now, as a result, my repertoire today is a little broader - 'Elijah', Brahms' 'Requiem', Dvorak's 'Stabat Mater', 'Te Deum' and 'Mass in D'; stuff I never would have done very well in my twenties - and I've moved into them with great ease.

JS: You mentioned early that you chose to be a serious singer, but that you don't think of one type being more serious than the other. What did you mean?

TJ: Years ago I did musical theater in summer stock. I feel I have an affinity for doing it. As Pops-type concerts have become increasingly a part of an orchestra's season, I'm happy to be doing more of that kind of music. It's so cool, to sing those songs with an orchestra of 75 people playing behind you.


JS: You've obviously had a very full singing career. Do you have other musical outlets?

TJ: Well, predominantly, I've been able to make my living as a singer for 20 years. I do other things because I want to. I'm the Music Director at Old Cambridge Baptist Church in Harvard Square. I need that for myself, spiritually. Also, I teach voice through the Office of the Arts at Harvard University. I've been there for 12 or 13 years now and I have a full load of students. That's so incredibly gratifying. If someone said I had to give up either the singing or the teaching I'd have a hard time picking which. I'm also the Vocal Coach for the Hasty Pudding Theater and I hold vocal master classes on the Harvard campus for theater productions and for the Freshman Arts Program (FAP) in the summer.


JS: You're spending a significant amount of time, then, with your teaching and directing.

TJ: I feel that it's my responsibility to give back, to give students every opportunity. Any abilities or gifts that I have are not something that I can take credit for. I believe they are a gift from God. All I can do is use them, develop them and give them back. That's the reason that I love to teach.

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Thomas Jones, Baritone, will be appearing with the Civic Symphony Orchestra of Boston on Saturday, December 18 at 2:00 PM in a Holiday Pops celebration of Christmas and Hannukah at the Fine Arts Center, Regis College, Weston, MA. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for children. 617-923-6333. www.csob.org.

For additional information and for audio selections, go to www.singersincorporated.com/thomasjones.