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Warren Jones

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Interview Date: June 8 and 9, 2014
Affiliation: Alum, M.M. piano '77
Interviewer: Tessa Updike, Archivist

Warren Jones, who was named as "Collaborative Pianist of the Year" for 2010 by the publication Musical America, performs with many of today's best-known artists: Stephanie Blythe, Christine Brewer, Anthony Dean Griffey, Bo Skovhus, Eric Owens, John Relyea, and Richard "Yongjae" O'Neill—and is Principal Pianist for the exciting California-based chamber music group Camerata Pacifica. In the past he has partnered such great performers as Marilyn Horne, Håkan Hagegård, Kathleen Battle, Samuel Ramey, Barbara Bonney, Carol Vaness, Judith Blegen, Salvatore Licitra, Tatiana Troyanos, James Morris, and Martti Talvela. He is a member of the faculty of Manhattan School of Music as well as the Music Academy of the West, and received the "Achievement Award" for 2011 from the Music Teachers National Association of America, their highest honor. He has been an invited guest at the White House to perform for state dinners in honor of the leaders of Canada, Russia, and Italy; and three times he has been the invited guest of the Justices of the United States Supreme Court for musical afternoons in the East Conference Room at the Court. A graduate of New England Conservatory, he currently serves on the Board of Visitors for that institution; he earned his graduate degree from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has been honored with the Doctor of Music degree from that school. His discography contains 29 recordings on every major label—and his newest musical ventures include conducting, having led sold-out critically-acclaimed performances of Mascagni's L'amico Fritz, Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Mozart's Die Zauberfloete in recent summers. In December 2014 he will lead the world premiere of a new operatic version of A Christmas Carol, starring Anthony Dean Griffey, music by Iain Bell and libretto by Simon Callow, at the Houston Grand Opera. For more information please visit his website, www.warrenjones.com.

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Topics

Early Years
New England Conservatory
Teaching at Newton College
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Conservatory of Music (continued)
Metropolitan Opera, New York
Working as a Collaborative Pianist
Recital with Kiri Te Kanawa
Conducting and Conductors
Recordings
Performer and Teacher
Music Academy of the West
Challenges for Music Students Today
Advice

Audio

Early years

Conservatory

San Francisco Opera

Met, New York

Recordings

Piano teachers

Oral history interviews are a method of collecting historical information from a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events. These interviews are primary materials, and by nature reflect the personal opinion of the narrators. As with any primary resource, these interviews are not to be viewed as the final and definitive source for any subject.

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