Teacher

American lyric baritone, choral conductor, organist, and pianist Ashton Denzel Jones is a native of Tulsa, OK. He has performed on stages for Texas Southern University Opera (Houston), the Manhattan School of Music Opera (New York), and the Varna Opera Academy of Bulgaria, Europe in the roles of Masetto, from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Bluff, from Mozart’s Die Schauspieldirektor, and Monsieur Pandolf, from Massenet’s Cendrillion.

In April of 2023, Ashton was a soloist with the Tulsa Signature Symphony. In December 2022, Ashton was a soloist in Handels Messiah with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. In April 2022, he was a featured soloist in Ralph V. Williams & Five Mystical Songs with the University of Missouri (Kansas City) Choral Union Chorus. He is a soloist and an inaugural member of the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers, the Houston Symphony Grassroots Chorus, and the Houston Ebony Opera Guild Chorus. Jones teaches virtual and in-person piano and voice lessons to adults and children 4 years and older.

Jones began playing piano by ear at 7; accompanied church services since age 13; and has served as a church pianist and organist/music director in Oklahoma, Texas, New York, Connecticut, and Missouri. Mr. Jones is the Music Director at the Second Missionary Baptist Church of Grandview, MO. He was recently named the Assistant Conductor/Director of the acapella ensemble, COGIC Chorale, for the International Church of God in Christ. His choral conducting skills were honed during his tenure as a Graduate Conductor with the University of Missouri (Kansas City) Canticum Novum Chorus and undergraduate student conductor for the Texas

Southern University Concert Choir. Ashton has served as a public high school and middle school choral conductor and music educator in Texas since 2020.

Jones earned a Bachelor of Arts from Texas Southern University studying voice with Dr. Jolie Rocke, piano with Dr. Lucian Zidaru, and pipe organ with Calvin Fuller; a Master of

Music in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music in the studio of Ruth Golden; and is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) at the University of Missouri (Kansas City) Conservatory for Music and Dance in the studio of Dr. Maria Kanyova. He studies piano with Matteo Generani. Ashton has studied and participated in choral conducting master classes with Dr. Tony McNeill and Dr. Brandon Boyd. Ashton enjoys traveling and spending time with friends and family in his free time. Ashton currently resides in Oklahoma City, OK, serving as an Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Langston University.