About Janna

Janna Hymes, conductor, is one of the most prominent young American conductors on the rise. Known for her energetic and passionate style, creative programming and strong ability to communicate and accompany, she has worked with soloists such as Joshua Bell, Horacio Gutierrez, Christopher Parkening, Jon Nakamatsu and singer/songwriter James Taylor, among others.

Ms. Hymes is Music Director of the Williamsburg Symphonia in Virginia and for the past five years was Music Director of the Maine Grand Opera. Previous positions include Associate Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony, Resident Conductor of the Charlotte Symphony and Music Director of the Columbus Women's Orchestra, the Cincinnati Composers' Guild and the I Solisti Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. She also served as Assistant Conductor of the Canton Symphony Orchestra (OH) and the Teatro Massimo Opera House in Palermo, Italy and is a frequent guest of the Messiaen Academy in Zwolle, Holland.

In the United States, she has guest conducted the Houston, Indianapolis, Oregon, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Hartford (CT), Madison (WI), Florida West Coast, Stamford, Harrisburg (PA), Spokane (WA), Richmond (VA), Springfield (MA), Chappaqua Chamber (NY), Bangor (ME) and Omaha symphony orchestras as well as the San Francisco Women's Philharmonic, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and the Florida Orchestra, among others. In addition, Ms. Hymes has been a frequent guest of the Costa Rica National Symphony, the Delta Ensemble of Holland where she has toured Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, the National Orchestre de Lyon, Besancon Chamber Orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico.

A Fulbright scholar, Janna Hymes has studied under such prominent conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Gustav Meier, Otto Werner-Mueller and Gunther Schuller. Originally from New York City, Ms. Hymes holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati and has studied at the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, the Festival at Sandpoint (ID) and the Conductor's Guild Institute. In 1988, she was a prizewinner at the International Conducting Competition in Besancon, France. In June of 1998 Ms. Hymes received a Distinguished Alumna Award from the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati and in 1999 was awarded a Geraldine C. and Emory M. Ford Foundation Grant. A frequent Guest Speaker, Ms. Hymes was speaker and honoree at the Women to Watch Celebration 2000 sponsored by the Indianapolis Business Journal.

Ms. Hymes conducted the Oregon Symphony Orchestra at the American Symphony Orchestra League 1995 National Conference and since then has been a teacher for the ASOL conducting workshops. International visits have included concerts with the Orchestre National de Lyon and Besancon Chamber Orchestra in France, the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico and the Delta Ensemble of the Netherlands. A frequent adjudicator, Janna Hymes has been on the music faculty of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, University of Akron and Butler University in Indianapolis.

Press Acclaim

"Ms. Hymes elicited a robust, energetic sound from the orchestra members, who responded with precise, fresh playing. She has a clear technique and is a confident conductor with an easy rapport."
THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER


"Appearing almost tiny on the podium, attired primly and properly in conductor's black, a slim and lithe Janna Hymes wielded a precise baton in providing assured guest leadership of the Madison Symphony Orchestra."
WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL


"The big event turned out to be the Prelude and Love-Death from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. From the first yearning notes through all the aching, arching lines of both pieces, the performance made of the music what it can be when the circumstances are right: something almost mystical."
THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR


"This popular and well-received program was under the very able direction of guest conductor Janna Hymes, whose approach is laid-back but very effective. She got great results with her baton technique and eloquent shading with her left hand. The orchestra was in tip-top form, giving this talented lady and the audience just what they wanted."
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH


"It was Hymes's conducting that caught my attention. Her conceptual grasp of Shostakovich's Age of Gold Suite and Borodin's In the Steppes of Central Asia, as well as the Prokofiev and the Tchaikovsky, enabled her to get from the orchestra some of its best playing of the season. Hymes... a talent to be reckoned with."
NUVO NEWSWEEKLY (Indianapolis)