Faculty Detail Page

John William "Buzz" Jones is Professor of Music and Director of the Jazz Ensemble. Dr. Jones also coordinates the theory program and teaches composition and jazz history. He is a twelve-time ASCAP Standard Award winner in composition and has been the recipient of numerous commissions for wind band, jazz ensemble, and chamber orchestra. For The People, a new composition for brass band and soloists, will be premiered in 2009 as part of the Civil War Studies program celebration the Abraham Lincoln Bi-Centennial.

His jazz orchestra, The Buzz Jones Big Band, has toured Europe three times with appearances at the North Sea and Montreux Jazz Festivals. The band has released four compact discs: Live! At The Montreux Jazz Festival (1995), Big Band Euro Tour (1997),and Millennium Swing (2000) and What's Up In The Attic? (2007). Buzz also conducted the Welsh Chamber Orchestra of Pennsylvania who was featured at the Welsh International Gymanfa Ganu,travelled to Wales and England on a six concert tour, and performed for the North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture Conference in Philadelphia. His jazz sextet has performed and taught jazz workshops in German musikschules 2004 and 2007).

Dr. Jones is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, Phi Beta Mu (International Bandmasters Fraternity), Music Educators National Conference, and the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association. He was received the Creative Arts Achievement Award from his alma mater, Lebanon Valley College, in 2003.

Courses
Theory III
Theory IV
Orchestration
The Art of Counterpoint and Composition
Jazz Ensemble
Jazz History