BARBARA JONES has been artistic director of the Sounds of Stow Chorus and Orchestra since 1979. A graduate of Wells College and Brown University, she studied choral conducting at Westminster Choir College under Frauke Haasemann, Joseph Flummerfelt, Dan Pratt and others, and with William Weinert and Edward Maclary at the Summer Conducting Institute at Eastman.
Barbara Jones, Artistic Director/Conductor
She studied orchestral conducting with Harold Farberman at the Conductor’s Institute at Bard College and with Helmut Rilling as a Conducting Fellow at the prestigious Oregon Bach.
Among the numerous large choral works Barbara presented over the years was the first Boston performance in more than a century of the Grand Mass in E-flat by Amy Beach. This concert was acclaimed by the Boston Globe and is currently available on CD, produced by Albany Records. Other major works she has pioneered include Berlioz’s Messe Solennelle, Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D, Robert Levin’s edition of Mozart’s Requiem, Bob Chilcott’s Requiem, and Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610.
Barbara has conducted many piano concertos performed by Ernest Goldman, including virtually all of the Mozart concertos, four of the five by Beethoven, and concertos by Brahms and Schumann. Other works featuring instrumentalists include violin concertos performed by Lawrence Franko and Ming-Chi Tsai; cello concertos performed by Ariana Falk and Cecilia Lee; piano concertos performed by Gregory Tolwinski and Wanda Paik; the Mandfredini Concerto for Two Trumpets in D, performed by Jesse Levine and Joe Foley; Mozart’s Concerto for Clarinet performed by Grant Anderson; and the commissioned piano work, Classical Concerto, by Keane Southard, performed by the composer. Interesting concertos for multiple instruments by Haydn and Beethoven have showcased the talent within the orchestra (Veronica Kenny, oboe; Leo Kenen, bassoon; and Pauline Oliver, piano, among others).
Barbara also maintains a very active piano studio and is a former president of NEPTA, New England Piano Teacher’s Association.
CHRISTINA KENNEDY
Christina Kennedy, Assistant Director
Active in the Sounds of Stow community since 2008, Christina Kennedy has been teaching professionally for over twenty-five years in a variety of settings, from music studios, church basements, and elementary classrooms to junior high school band rooms and college recital halls. She holds a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Choral Conducting from Messiah University and a Master’s Degree in Performance from the University of Maine. Currently serving as choral director at Triton Regional Middle & High Schools, assistant music director at North Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, and alto in NOVA Women’s Choral Project, she often spends her free time learning about interesting methods and materials to bring to her community and students. Recently she worked as music and chorus teacher at Oxbow Schoolhouse, a Waldorf-inspired independent school, and co-founded and directed two choruses: the All Together Now Chorus, an intergenerational group of singers aged three to seventy; and the Middlesex Children’s Chorale, a treble chorus based in Westford. Additionally, she sang as soprano in Synergy, an a cappella vocal quartet, and as a “sopralto” with a touring choir that made the rounds of cathedrals in England. Working with excellent teachers and colleagues throughout her life has taught her that music is far more than producing sound from notes on a page — that, among many other attributes, it is a way to connect with the past, with her own community, and with others around the world.
PAULINE OLIVER
Pauline Oliver, Accompanist
A pianist, harpsichordist, organist, choral director, and teacher, PAULINE OLIVER has been the accompanist of Sounds of Stow since 2009. She has served as accompanist for several choruses in the area, including Concord Chorus, Master Singers of Lexington and Harvard Pro Musica. An active chamber musician, she has collaborated in concert with many musicians in the Boston area as well as appearing as both piano soloist and orchestral pianist with the Concord Orchestra. A singer herself, she was also studio accompanist for the late David Blair McClosky and Donna Roll through the McClosky Studios in Boston and for the late Janet Irving at the Longy School of Music. Most recently, she was chorusmaster and piano/vocal coach for the Boston Lyric Opera. Pauline is currently the Music Director and Organist at First Parish in Wayland, and she maintains a piano/vocal studio in her home in Concord.
ERNEST GOLDMAN (1913-2014) was co-founder with Barbara Jones of Sounds of Stow, and served as pianist and accompanist for several decades. Born in Vienna, he received his musical training from teachers in a direct line leading back to Beethoven. Audiences in the Stow/Concord area knew him for his solo and chamber music work spanning more than 30 years. Over this period he was soloist in more than twenty-five different piano concertos.
Ernest was an engineer and physicist by profession until his retirement in 1983, after which he devoted himself full-time to furthering music in the Stow area. Ernest passed away in January, 2014.