My research project, The Art of the Negro Spiritual (ANS), looks into historical and performance aspects of the Negro Spiritual as an art song form. I've developed a Web site where I share parts of my research and that I use to network with others interested in spirituals. The site includes an e-book that has excerpts from the forthcoming book and a survey on the challenges of bringing spiritual art songs to the voice studio. For more information, visit the site at www.artofthenegrospiritual.com.

I conducted a live interview on Iowa Public Radio's The Exchange--hosted by Ben Kieffer--on Monday, April 28, 2008. I included recordings of spirituals performed with pianists Timothy Newton and William Tinker during recent recitals given on the Grinnell College campus, discussed the unique nature of performing spirituals set for concert performance and how I became interested in this American musical form. Listen to interview.

An even older research project is called Afrocentric Voices in Classical Music. That Web site focuses on African American performers and composers and on the vocal music forms they influenced, especially opera, art songs and Negro spirituals composed for concert performance. There are biographies, bibliographies, a chronology, and other information about this music and these musicians. There is also a place for African American Future Voices to register and network. To learn about this site, please go to the Afrocentric Voices page.

I have presented lecture recitals on aspects of my research at sites such as the University of Kansas, Lawrence, where I re-introduced Margaret Bonds' Five Creek-Freedmen Spirituals. I have served as research consultant for organizations including The Kennedy Center Honors and The Washington Chorus.

My most recent presentation focused on "Secret Codes in the Negro Spiritual" at the Grinnell Historical Museum, Grinnell, Iowa. I led a discussion on how songs such as "Go Down Moses" and "Steal Away" were used to communicate among slaves, especially those who travelled the Underground Railroad.

I am scheduled to participate in a panel discussion of ways to collaborate in the preservation of the Negro spiritual. The panel is sponsored by the National Association of Negro Musicians at their 87th annual conference, Norfolk, Virginia, from July 23-27, 2006. For more information, see the article about the panel and its participants is on page six of NANM's Reverberations newsletter, a flyer for the conference, and find registration information is available at the NANM web site.

The African-American Art Song Alliance will observe its tenth anniversary with a conference February 9-12, 2007, at the University of California, Irvine. I have been invited to present a paper on resources available by and about African Americans in classical vocal music. The specific date and time will announced when available. For more information about the conference, visit the African-American Art Song Alliance web site.

Musical Selections Performed by Randye Jones:
This Little Light of Mine by Hale Smith (with Francis Conlon, piano)
I Want Jesus to Walk with Me by Maria Thompson Corley (with Gregory Thompson, piano)
Vocalise, op. 34, no. 14, by Sergei Rachmaninoff (with Timothy Newton, piano)
Deep River by Harry T. Burleigh (with Timothy Newton, piano)
Calvary by Betty Jackson King (with William Tinker, piano)