Robert 
Jones, Artistic Director
ROBERT JONES directs University Chorale at the University of Dayton. Chorale has enjoyed collaborations with professional ensembles in recent years. In 1999, Chorale performed Johannes Brahms’ Requiem with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus and joined them again in November 2002 to present Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem. Chorale has enjoyed performances abroad in the last three years, singing in many of the revered institutions of Christendom. Chorale initially toured Europe in May 1999. The ensemble performed at St. Giles (Scotland), St. Paul’s (London) and Notre Dame Cathedral (Paris). Chorale concretized in Prague, Salzburg, Vienna, Venice and Rome in June 2001. Concerts sites included St. Vitus Cathedral (Prague, Czech Republic), St. Stephen’s Cathedral and Votivkirke(Vienna) St. Franziskanekirche (Salzburg), St. Florian’s Abbey (burial site of composer Anton Bruckner), S. Giovanni e Paolo (Venice) and the Pantheon (Rome). Dr. Jones’ other duties include teaching vocal music education and conducting courses and supervising vocal music student teachers. Including his public school experience, Dr. Jones has served as an adjudicator, guest conductor, and clinician in the East and Midwest regions. He has appeared as a soloist with the Dayton Bach Society where he performed the role of Jesus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, a role he also sang with the Choral Union of the University of Ohio in 1998. With the Miami (FL) Bach Society he appeared as a soloist in performances of Heinrich Schutz’ Requiem. Dr. Jones is also artistic director of MUSICA!, a professional choral ensemble known throughout the Miami Valley for its performance excellence. Its musical repertoire ranges from seasonal selections, to partsongs and sacred literature from all musical eras, to vocal jazz and spirituals. MUSICA!’s first CD, GREAT DAY, was released in 2001. The ensemble has performed for the Ohio Choral Directors Conference and the Ohio Music Education Conference. Dr. Jones’ articles and music reviews have appeared in School, Musician,and Director, the American Choral Directors Journal, the Catholic Music Educator, the Chorus America Newsletter, the Ohio Choral Directors Association Newsletter, Chorus, and TRIAD, the publication of the Ohio Music Educators Conference. Dr. Jones has presented sessions at the National Association of Teachers Midwest Summer Conference on the Mature Voice, at the Ohio Choral Directors Conference and the Ohio Music Educators Conference. Additionally, he has published arrangements and compositions and was employed as a choral editor for Plymouth Music Company in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Dr. Jones completed his M.M. in Vocal Performance at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and his DMA in Choral Conducting at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the Music Educators National Conference, a past officer and member of the Ohio Choral Directors Association, and a life member of the American Choral Directors Association. He was named to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, 2000.
Dr. John Leman, Artistic Director Emeritus
Dr. John Leman, was professor of Choral Conducting at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music and was named Artistic Director of MUSICA! in August 1993.
Dr. Leman has been on the faculty of CCM since 1969. A native of Illinois, he received his masters and doctoral degrees in music education from the University of Illinois. Additional post-doctoral study was done with Professor Harry Archer in Hastings, England. He has been a guest conductor for choirs in fourteen states and seven foreign countries, and has lectured on conducting techniques throughout the United States. During ten years with the American Youth Chorus, he conducted more than 150 performances in 12 European countries, visiting every major European city. In 1980 Dr. Leman was appointed National Chairman of the Committee on Male Voices of the American Choral Directors Association.
In 1978 he was appointed Director of Choruses for the May Festival, the official chorus of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In that capacity he has collaborated with conductors including Thomas Schippers, James Levine, Walter Susskind, Julius Rudel, Robert Shaw, Andrew Davis, Klaus Tennstedt, Max Rudolf, Michael Tilson Thomas, Michael Gielen, and Jesus Lopez-Cobos. In 1987 he organized the Cincinnati May Festival Youth Chorus.
He has presented numerous sessions on the relationship of conducting gesture to sound at ACDA and MENC Conventions. He is recognized throughout the United States as one of the top conducting analysts and is in demand throughout the country as a clinician in this field.
In the summer of 1988, he took the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus on their first trip to Europe. After this tour, he accepted an invitation to return to Yugoslavia the following summer to perform with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1989, he organized the Cincinnati International Chorale, for European concert tours. During the summer of 1991, the Chorale performed with both the Moscow Radio and Television Orchestra and the Leningrad New Philharmonic Orchestra.
Leman was also one of six American conductors to conduct the 22,000-voice choir in Estonia for the historic "Bridges of Song Festival." In 1988 he was honored as the recipient of the Post-Corbett Award in the category for Outstanding Performing Artist in the city of Cincinnati.
