Allyssa Jones

Allyssa Jones is an award-winning musician and educator whose career spans 30 years on stage and in the classroom. A nationally recognized presenter and clinician, Allyssa led sessions on creative leadership, culturally responsive teaching, vocal jazz, classroom management, and music and adolescent literacy for numerous organizations, including the Perrone-Sizer Institute, Cantata Singers, Berklee College of Music, several NAfME state affiliates, the International Association for Jazz Education and the Jazz Education Network. Her conducting credits include over a decade as Vocal Jazz Director at Boston Arts Academy, as well as appearances with the Boston Children’s Chorus and the MMEA-Northeast District Junior Festival Treble Chorus. Formerly the Boston Public Schools’ Program Director for Performing Arts, Allyssa continues to advocate for equity, access and agency in arts education. A recipient of a Surdna Fellowship for her creative work, Allyssa has five solo recordings to her credit and has served as composer, music director and sound designer for several Boston-based theatre companies. Recent projects include original music for the opera/musical Brother Nat, which debuted at the New York Musical Theatre Festival in 2018, numerous theatre productions, and a series of art songs released in 2020, featuring text by poets Naomi Ayala and Kendra Preston Leonard.

Currently, Allyssa manages operations and projects for arts organizations as principal consultant for Jones Creative & Consulting. She resides in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she is the proud pet parent of Miles the ShihTzu. She holds degrees in Music Education from Northern Illinois University (M.M.) and Adelphi University (B.S.).