NEW YORK CITY OPERA

Pianist, Baritone, and Alexander Technique Teacher, William Barto Jones was a member of the full-time music staff of the New York City Opera from 1990-2013. He worked on productions of over 60 operas from a wide range of styles, but he especially loved doing French repertoire and liked the challenges of the large scale modern works.

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BACKGROUND

A native of Houston, Texas, Bill received the Bachelor of Arts from the University of St.Thomas in Houston where he held the Bell Piano Scholarship. He received the L.S.U. Distinguished Pianists' Award from Louisiana State University where he was awarded the Master of Music degree in piano. After moving to New York in 1978, Bill received fellowships and awards in accompanying and coaching from the Tanglewood Festival of Music, Franz Schubert Institute in Austria and from the Merola program of the San Francisco Opera. Bill has also worked with Opera Colorado,The Bard Festival, Central City Opera, Cleveland Opera and Wolf Trap Opera .

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ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE

A primary part of Bill's work today involves being a teacher of the powerful mind/body work, the Alexander Technique. He has a long time strong commitment to the technique, recognizing the power this work has for transforming lives and freeing excessive tensions that can block full joy in music making and full joy in living. He has worked many years to have his own playing, singing and music making embody this work, and is constantly amazed by on-going powerful changes in his own playing, singing and teaching.

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Bill was introduced to Alexander Technique by the late pioneer voice teacher, Harold Parker, who utilized it in his voice studio.  Bill eventually trained to be a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique with internationally recognized British Alexander Teacher, John Nicholls.  He was certified by AmSAT (American Society of Alexander Technique) in 2009.  He has also studied Alexander Technique with Nanette Walsh, Tom Vasiliades, Anne Waxman, and Christine Batten. 

 

Bill teaches Alexander, voice and piano privately, both at home in New York and in Philadelphia. He has taught Alexander workshops to opera singers and instrumentalists for the Metropolitan International Festival of Music (2011-2016), for Loveland Opera Theater, at Cedarville University in Ohio, Hollins University in Virginia and for The College of New Jersey Music Department. Since 2016, he has been an Adjunct Piano Professor at Kean University.