Edward E. Jones

Edward Elwyn Jones, is currently in his second year of his appointment as the Gund University Organist and Choirmaster. The Reverend Professor Peter J. Gomes announced his appointment at the 2003 Easter morning service where it was enthusiastically received by the choir and congregation.

Mr. Jones was appointed on the recommendation of the committee established in 2003 to carry out a thorough and exhaustive search for the position. Serving on the search committee, which was administered by Matthew F. Burt, Research Associate in The Memorial Church, were three undergraduate members of the University Choir, Professor Thomas F. Kelly of the Music Department, Professor Samuel L. Hayes of the Business School, and The Reverend David P. Illingworth, formerly assistant Dean of Harvard College. Together, they considered an international pool of seventy highly qualified applicants. “In the end,” said Professor Gomes, “we concluded that the talent and resources required to place the choir where it ought to be in the 21st century were to be found in the person who has served us so well these past months.”

Edward E. Jones directs the University Choir in the 95th Annual Christmas Carol Services.

Harry L. Huff

Harry Lyn Huff was appointed Associate University Organist and Choirmaster and Director of the Appleton Chorus in the Fall of 2004. He is also currently Music Director and Lecturer on Ministry for the Harvard Divinity School. He was formerly Music Director at Calvary Episcopal Church, Artist-in-Residence at Union Theological Seminary, Adjunct Organist in St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University, Organist at Temple Shaaray Tefila, and Artistic Director of the St. George’s Choral Society, all in New York City.

Mr. Huff’s freelance career as an organist, pianist and conductor has lead to collaborations with many celebrated artists, such as classical singers Jessye Norman and Håkan Hagegård, pop singers Judy Collins and Art Garfunkel, and numerous instrumentalists. He has been a featured soloist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New York Pops and the New Jersey Symphony, and he has been a guest artist at the Aspen, Avignon, Chautauqua, Copenhagen, Gotland, Mostly Mozart and Spoleto summer festivals.

In The Memorial Church, Mr. Huff brings a truly special and sensitive talent to his responsibilities as one of the primary organists in the church.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Edward Jones

Gund University Organist
and Choirmaster

Edward Elwyn Jones is the seventh Gund University Organist and Choirmaster in The Memorial Church, Harvard University, where he directs the University Choir in daily and Sunday services. In the spring of 2004 he directed a semi-staged performance of Handel’s Solomon in collaboration with the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, and in June he led a successful choir tour to Montreal, Canada. In addition, Mr. Jones conducts the annual Christmas carol service, the oldest of its kind in the United States.

A native of Wales, Mr. Jones studied music at Cambridge University, where he was Organ Scholar of Emmanuel College, and the conductor of three university orchestras. He moved to the United States in 1998, serving firstly as Organ Scholar and then as Assistant Organist in The Memorial Church at Harvard. During this time he also directed several operas for the Harvard Early Music Society, including Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Cavalli’s Giasone. From 2000–2003 Mr. Jones was the Assistant Organist of Christ Church United Methodist on Park Avenue in New York City, while pursuing a master’s degree in orchestral conducting at The Mannes College of Music. Upon graduation he was awarded the Felix Salzer Memorial Award, and the following year he worked as Assistant Conductor for The Mannes Opera. Mr. Jones has conducted performances of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea in the Reykjavic Summer Opera Festival, Iceland, and this spring will lead a production of Don Giovanni in Lowell House.

The Harvard University Choir
The Memorial Church
Harvard Yard
Cambridge, MA 02138