meet our conductor

JON ARTERTON moved to the St. Petersburg area

in January 2016. He began his musical journey as a

choirboy at Washington DC's National Cathedral.

He holds a Master's Degree in Choral Conducting

from The New England Conservatory of Music in

Boston and was twice a Vocal Fellow at the

Tanglewood Music Festival. He also holds an MFA

in Acting from Smith College and has performed in

hundreds of plays and musicals, including The Utter

Glory of Morrissey Hall on Broadway. He was the

founder and musical arranger of The Flirtations, the

proudly gay a cappella singing group which

performed in venues around the world including

Carnegie Hall, and which was seen in the film

Philadelphia and on HBO, Good Morning America

and MTV. In 2002 he founded The Outer Cape

Chorale, a community chorus based in

Provincetown, Massachusetts. By the time he left

the Cape the chorus had grown to 150 voices and

had performed such works as Requiems by

Brahms, Mozart, Cherubini and Fauré, several

Bach cantatas, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Bernstein’s

Chichester Psalms and Mass, Haydn’s Creation

and Mass in the Time of War, Karl Jenkins’ The

Armed Man; as well as concerts of music by

Gershwin, Gilbert & Sullivan, Sondheim, the

Beatles, and more. He and his husband James

Mack sing together frequently and have released a

CD entitled “Legally Married… and the Sky Didn’t

Fall!”. In keeping with his philosophy that singing is

good for one’s health and good for the world, Jon

gives popular vocal workshops called “Singing with

Courage.” He serves as the Director of Music at the

has three times prepared the chorus for the Florida

Orchestra’s annual Sing Out Tampa Bay concerts.