Dr. Jeffery L. Ames
Director of Choral Activities and Professor of Music, Belmont University
Dr. Jeffery L. Ames serves as Director of Choral Activities and Full Professor at Belmont University. As a choral clinician, Dr. Ames has conducted collegiate, senior, and junior high school mixed, and male choirs at national, regional, and state conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and the National Association for Music Education. He has performed and guest conducted internationally in the countries of Australia, Costa Rica, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Estonia, South Korea, the Republic of Ghana, Austria, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, and Japan.
Dr. Ames has collaborated with well-known conductors such as André Thomas, Allen Crowell, Jo-Michael Scheibe, Lynne Gackle, and Anton Armstrong. Additionally, well-known celebrities include Trisha Yearwood, Laura Bell Bundy, CeCe Winans, Connie Smith, Ricky Skaggs and The Whites, Denyce Graves, Michael W. Smith, Kathy Mattea, Sheryl Crow, Kane Brown, Mickey Guyton, Carrie Underwood, Amy Grant, and legendary rock band the Rolling Stones.
A published composer and writer, Dr. Ames specializes in composing works that are from the heart. His literary publications focus on choral music in the concert gospel genre, as well as choral music in the Western tradition composed by modern African American composers. His recent magnum opus, Requiem for Colour, chronicles the Black American experience using the mass musical setting.
Professor Ames holds the Ph.D. in Choral Conducting/Choral Music Education and a Master of Choral Music Education degree from The Florida State University, and a Bachelor of Music degree, with a double major in Vocal Performance and Piano Accompanying from James Madison University. Dr. Ames’ service to ACDA includes former National R&R Chair of World Musics and Cultures, Past President of the Tennessee chapter, and he currently serves as the President for the Southern Region. Dr. Ames holds the honor of being the first recipient of the ACDA James Mulholland Choral Music Fellowship, the first African American International Conductor Exchange Program (ICEP) Conducting Fellow through ACDA, and the first African American to receive Belmont University’s prestigious Presidential Faculty Achievement Award (2022-2023).