The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra Chorus

Jon O. Carlson

is a native of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Dr. Carlson attended Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania and holds the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois in 1974.

From 1975 to 1978 Dr. Carlson taught at Indiana State University Evansville. In Evansville he also directed the Evansville Philharmonic Chorus and served as organist-director of First Presbyterian Church.

In 1978 Dr. Carlson joined the faculty of Jacksonville University where he is Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music. From 1991-2001 he served as Chair of the Division of Music.

Since Dr. Carlson came to Jacksonville University in 1978, he has used choral music as a tool not only for cultural enrichment at the university, but also in the community. His choirs have represented Jacksonville throughout the state, the Southeast, and in a performance tour to England. He has served as clinician and conductor with choirs from Baptists to Catholics. He conducted a community chamber choir, the St. Johns Art Singers, for five years and was appointed Chorus Director of the Jacksonville Symphony Chorus in the fall of 2001. He has prepared the JSC for performances with the J acksonville Symphony Orchestra of Haydn’s Creation, Handel’s Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem and Four Sacred Pieces, Haydn’s The Creation, Mozart’s Grand Mass in C, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Rogers and Hammerstein’s Showcase Concert, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Walton’s Henry V: A Shakespearean Scenario, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. In May of 2003 he conducted the JSC in a performance of Duruflé’s Requiem. He prepared the chorus for the first commercial recording of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Orff’s Carmina Burana. He has also prepared the chorus for the grand opera productions of Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Barber of Sevillle, Puccini’s La Bohème and Madama Butterfly a nd Verdi’s La Traviata.

He also has used choral music as a tool for breaking down racial barriers, for enrichment with retired persons, for enrichment with those incarcerated in prisons, for spiritual enhancement in services working with both Presbyterian and Methodist churches, to help bridge religious divisions by his performances at community worship services and the Interfaith Council services, to help raise money to feed the poor in his leadership through the United Community Outreach Program sponsored by 20 churches on the Southside. In addition, he has planned choral festivals that have united the high school choirs and the four college choirs of Jacksonville.

He was instrumental in the founding of the Jacksonville Children’s Chorus that was started at Jacksonville University with Jim Taylor as director. He also currently serves as Director of Music of Southside United Methodist Church since his appointment in October of 1983 where he directors the Chancel Choir, Chancel Bell Ringers and coordinates the music schedule.

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